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Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok

These photos come from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum. They all fall under public domain, as per the organization's website.

About the couple:

Eleanor Roosevelt's name may ring a familiar bell for history lovers. She was the First Lady of the United States and wife to President Franklin D. Roosevelt! Therefore, it may be surprising to learn of her long rumored romantic relationship with Lorena Hickok.

The women met when Hickok, a prominent journalist, was tasked to write articles about the President and his wife. It is thought that the two soon caught feelings for each other, and Hickok left the newspaper because she feared she was compromising her journalistic integrity4.   However, the women didn't separate after she left her job -- instead, she moved into the White House and started working as a staff member4.

For obvious reasons (Roosevelt's marriage and homophobia), their romantic relationship was never publically confirmed. However, the two women did share a strong bond, as evidenced in their many, many letters3 -- two of which are featured in this collection. Though their romance is said to have eventually petered out, they remained friends until Eleanor passed away3.

In their letters, Eleanor often affectionately calls her lover by the nickname, "Hick". She also uses pet names like "dear" or "dearest."

Letters

This letter comes from the The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, which was created by the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences. The college is part of The George Washington University. All rights for this item go to the Project.

In this letter, dated September 12, 1943, Eleanor details her services tending to the troops in Australia, and all of the events she has going on that is meant to rally them. She speaks of their unpreparedness for the brutality of WWII.

She also mentions that though her role in the country is good for intercountry relationship building, it doesn’t aid American troops — the “F” she complains about is her husband — Franklin Delanor Roosevelt, the 32nd President of America. (It does seem interesting that she refers to her husband in a letter to her lover, but this is not unusual for their correspondence.)

She reassures Hickok that though it wasn’t a pleasure trip and that she “ha[dn’t] enjoyed it”, she is still fine and not tired from her duties. She signs off with a sweet note to Hickok, reassuring the reporter she is not far from her mind, and telling her she may have enjoyed it — which belays that she’d been thinking about her in their time apart and had a fantasy that the two could have traveled there together.

 Like heterosexual couples, LGBTQ+ couples also share their difficult days and worries about the strife they face. This letter is a wonderful example of correspondences between a couple that is not necessarily romantic, but still is evidence of the pair's close bond.

This letter comes from the The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, which was created by the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences. The college is part of The George Washington University. All rights for this item go to the Project.

This letter was dated just 7 days after FDR’s death on April 12, 1945. Eleanor Roosevelt (wife of FDR, a widow by the time this letter is written) drafted this letter to Lorena Hickok.

In it, Eleanor Roosevelt laments that the upstairs of the White House feels “desolate” and “empty and without purpose” without her husband. In the first sentence, she refers to the Trumans (indeed, the vice president to FDR, and his wife) and about the process of transferring presidency after her husband’s death.

Although not a typical love letter, it shows the great trust Eleanor has in Hick, as she freely shares her grief and her grim excitement for the future to the letter recipient. For example Roosevelt writes, “I hope you and I will be working together” and “I may be weary when we get home tomorrow but I’m so glad you will be at the apartment,” which may relay that the two were meeting in person and that though grieving, Roosevelt was looking forward to being comforted over the death of her husband by Hick. It’s an interesting relationship -- and clearly one of great affection; she is essentially relaying her trauma and sadness to her lover, and also expressing excitement over their possible future together that was only possible because he was gone.

She acknowledges that her husband was bigger than life and that she had, like many, “lived in his shadow” and that she would have to step out and forge a new path, now that he was no longer alive.