Douglass Crockwell — Eleanor Roosevelt

Artist/illustrator Douglass Crockwell cast a one-of-a-kind commemorative medal as a gift for Eleanor Roosevelt for a keepsake of her visit to Glens Falls in 1954.

The former First Lady spoke at the Glens Falls High School auditorium on Jan. 27 about the urgency of civic engagement and tolerance.

“The American people must accept responsibility as individuals as well as a government.” Roosevelt said, according to a report in The Post-Star the next day. “It is not enough for the government to accept leadership. The people must accept leadership too, because it is the people who paint the picture of what democracy is.”

Crockwell was vice chairman of the program committee for the fall and winter lecture series of The Glens Falls Forum, which brought Roosevelt to town.

She traveled to Glens Falls from Montreal, and left a few hours after her speech for Washington, D.C., where she was to speak on Jan. 28.

About 1,000 people attended the lecture, despite “precarious” weather.

“The weather man threw the book at Upstate New York tonight — snow, sleet, hail, freezing rain, fog and a freakish June-in-January thunder-and-lightning storm,” the Associated Press reported.

In Glens Falls, the thunder storm set in at about 6 p.m., and it had snowed and sleeted much of the day.

WWSC radio in Glens Falls broadcast the speech.

Roosevelt praised the nation’s defense and economic endeavors.

“In a military and economic way, I think we are doing a very remarkable job. We are trying to do what we should do in spiritual and moral areas.”

Yet, a greater sense of global understanding was necessary.

“We need to make the people of this world feel that we care what happens to their children in the future because their children are going to be the companions of our children,” she said. “If we can have enough vision and enough courage, we will lead in all ways that make leadership worthwhile and pass on to our children something better in the way of human relations than we had in the past.”

After the lecture, Crockwell and his wife hosted a reception for Roosevelt at their home on Sanford Street.

Crockwell gave the medal to Roosevelt as she was leaving to catch the late train for Washington.

Click here to read my most recent previous Douglass Crockwell history post.