Disclaimer

Extensive time and effort has gone into the research that produced this blog. The places and events have credible historical sources to support them. However, the characters themselves are composites based on this research.
Under no circumstances are the blog posts to be cited as primary sources.
For source material that can be cited, please see our Resources page.

About the Project

First Hundred Days is a site that served as the capstone project for Elizabeth Banks and Lindsay Dumas’ MA in Public History and Archives at New York University in 2009. The goal was to create an educational tool about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s First Hundred Days. It is a “historical blog”, that takes “characters” comprised of primary and secondary research, who “blog” the first three months of FDR’s presidency. Adhering to national high school Social Studies and History standards, this site is an ideal way to supplement the study of the early New Deal.

Along with the secondary literature about the First Hundred Days, a plethora of primary sources related to New Deal policies were consulted in the formation of the “bloggers” backstories. This included the text of bills, correspondence, newsreels, photographs and popular culture ephemera. Many of those consulted sources are excerpted in posts on the blog. Following an extensive research period, composite characters were created to provide the most encompassing voices of the First Hundred Days. The characters created were: someone in the FDR administration to help outline policy, a factory worker in Illinois, a housewife in Southern California, a farmer from the central Plains, a World War I veteran in the Appalachian mountains, and a child in New York. The characters represent a diverse cross-section of regions, ethnicities, genders and socio-economic backgrounds. The historical data was the catalyst for the formation of each character. In giving life to their stories, each post is supplemented with historical details and media. Each character is not a stereotype or a stock creation, but they have unique but historically accurate issues in their lives. The media, such as YouTube videos or photographs from the Library of Congress are products whose originals date back to the First Hundred Days.

As this site continues to grow, there will be more details added, and greater opportunities for students and educators to interact with the “bloggers”. Enjoy!

About the Creators

Elizabeth Banks

Elizabeth Banks is a recent graduate of the Public History and Archives program at New York University. Originally from Toronto, she has nurtured an interest in American history since her honors undergraduate work at McGill University in Montreal. She hopes to continue to find new and dynamic ways to show students they can embrace history be it on the Web or in a Museum setting. She has interned at multiple institutions in both exhibitions and education, including the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

Lindsay Dumas

Lindsay Dumas is a recent graduate of the Public History and Archives Masters Program at New York University. She attributes her love of history to hearing stories of growing up in the Depression from her grandfather and in the 1960s from her father. A graduate of Providence College, she has interned at numerous institutions including the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, and the Brooklyn Historical Society.