Eleanor Roosevelt in L.A.

• Posted By: Scott Harrison
• Posted On: 12:37 a.m. | June 24, 2011

March 17, 1938: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visits the Federal Nursery School in the 1000 block of East Vernon Avenue during a tour of government relief activities in Los Angeles.

With the headline “First Lady Tours Federal Projects like Whirlwind,” the Los Angeles Times reported the next day:

A whirlwind struck Los Angeles yesterday.

Manana and siesta-minded Southlanders, clutching their headgear, thought it was another of nature’s unusual pranks, but they found out it was the First Lady of the land, traveling at her usual rate from N.Y.A. project to W.P.A. project on an inspection tour.

Plans were for Miss Anne de G. Treadwell, state director, and Arthur Yale, area director of the National Youth Administration to escort Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, but before the morning was half over they were trailing…

This photo by Times staff photographer Horton Churchill was published on Page 1 along with the story.

When this image was republished in the February 1952 issue of  “Among Ourselves,” a Los Angeles Times employee newsletter,  Churchill stated that the human interest appeal and storytelling features made this his one of his favorite images.