Remarks Upon Opening an Exhibit of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Naval Prints.

Mr. Boutin, Mr. Grover, Admiral Morison, ladies and gentlemen:

I want to express the appreciation, I know, of all of us to the Archives for the devoted work of those who have made this exhibit possible.

About a year ago, I read an article in the New York Times about the extraordinary collection of naval prints which was referred to as the largest and best known in this country. Even though I have been interested in the sea from my earliest boyhood, I had not been aware of what President Roosevelt had done in this field.

I think all of us were very familiar with the stamp collection. But the fact that he had--in addition to having one of the finest stamp collections in the United States if not in the world, that he also had--in spite of having some other interests in his life, the most unusual collection of naval prints, indicates an extraordinary versatility as well as vitality to which he brought everything that he did. So that I thought it would be very appropriate that the best of these pictures should come to Washington and be exhibited. And I hope that after the exhibition is completed here it can go to other parts of the country so that other Americans can see it.

It serves two very useful purposes. First, it tells us more about a very important part of our lives-our lives at sea. We think of ourselves, I think, as land animals in a sense, but we really look to the sea--the Atlantic and the Pacific--which have defended us and have secured us and have enriched us.

Our naval history is one of the most exciting threads that runs throughout the long history of our country, and the combination of the Navy and the Maritime and the extraordinary men who served and who gave it life and thrust and thesis deserves to be recorded.

So that I think this exhibit will enrich all of those who look east and west from our seashore.

In addition, I think it tells us something about one of our most distinguished Presidents. He did not spend very much money on this collection. He looked for bargains. His descent was Dutch and frugal. He did not merely buy other collectors' exhibits, but instead he went over catalogues for long periods of time. Mr. Louis Howe represented him and went to a number of places and secured pictures and some extraordinary bargains. In 1938-1939 he felt that prices were getting too high and his collection began to taper off. So this was not a question of putting large financial resources into buying it the easy way but instead, day after day, year after year it was built up, and now it is extraordinary.

In order to make this exhibit truly meaningful, we asked our great historian, Admiral Morison, if he would be kind enough, with the cooperation of the Government people here and the Librarian at Hyde Park, to pick the pictures which should be exhibited. Admiral Morison, who has been so generous to the Navy and really to all of us who are interested in the Navy, agreed to do so; and he is here today. And we are very indebted to him for participating in this exhibit.

We hope that this opening today, attended as it is by the family and old friends of President Roosevelt--that we will be the first of a great number of Americans who will touch, through this exhibit, not only the life of President Roosevelt but also the old Navy.