Among other things, Eleanor lobbied for each home to have electricity and modern appliances (incredible luxuries for the time, especially in rural West Virginia), purchased Christmas presents for the children, and attended each of Arthurdale’s high school graduation ceremonies from 1935 to 1944. Remarkably, President Roosevelt joined her for the 1938 graduation ceremony and, to this day, is the only sitting president to deliver a high school commencement speech. Eleanor invited the graduating classes to a meal at the White House, helped them find jobs, and generally enlarged their visions of what they could become. Though the U.S. government only continued to manage Arthurdale until 1947, Eleanor returned for her last visit in 1960 to dedicate the Arthudale’s Presbyterian church.

Eleanor Roosevelt was a progressive visionary in many aspects of her life. Partly because of her advocacy, her husband appointed 22 women to senior positions, including the first female cabinet member. She traveled with Black friends and often spoke at Black graduations and events. She criticized New Deal policies that ignored these two groups and helped enlarge their missions. She often visited other countries as her husband’s representative, including the South Pacific war zone where she visited injured soldiers and sailors. 

Eleanor forever changed the image of a First Lady. Before her, the expectation of a president’s wife was to be a hostess and stay in the background, but  Eleanor was tireless. She had been a teacher and continued to edit magazines, write books, compose a daily newspaper column, give speeches, and manage an astonishing amount of correspondence, including thousands of letters from average citizens. She was an effective advocate of FDR’s New Deal policies which focused on helping the common people rather than the wealthy and well connected.