Childhood and Early Life

Eleanor Roosevelt with her father, Elliott Roosevelt and her two brothers, Elliott, Jr. and Gracie Hall R.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born October 11, 1884 in New York, New York. Her mom was Anna Hall and her father was Elliot Roosevelt, younger brother of President Theodore Roosevelt. Although the family was wealthy, they were not all that they appeared to be. Elliot suffered from severe depression and alcoholism while Anna was worried about the family’s image in the upper-class society. She was embarrassed of Eleanor because she wasn’t “pretty”. Elliot eventually entered a program for alcoholics and her mother Anna passed away when Eleanor was just eight years old. Eleanor and her brothers went to go live with their grandmother on New York where she later found out that her father had died about 2 years later.
By the time Eleanor was 15, her life would take a turn for the better. She was sent to England to attend Allenwood, an English finishing school outside London, run by headmistress, Marie Souvestre. Mlle. The teachers at Allenwood saw tremendous potential in Eleanor and began to help her overcome her fears and build her self confidence which would, in the long run, help her become the strong and powerful woman that she was. She returned back to New York when she was eighteen and she became involved in social service work, joined the Junior League and taught at the Rivington Street Settlement House.

Eleanor Roosevelt school portrait, 1898.