Campaigning Through the Ages
Photo: Library of Congress
Eleven months before developing polio, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is shown campaigning as 1920 Democratic nominee James Cox's vice presidential running mate. After polio set in at age 39, FDR devoted himself to medical philanthropy. Through fundraising and outreach he played a part in starting the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, known today as the March of Dimes. Presidential photos of FDR with crutches or braces are extremely rare. Photojournalists respected FDR's request to project a strong, healthy image to the American public and did not capture him in a compromised position.