Dubbed the “First Lady of the World” for her humanitarian achievements, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was born into a prominent New York family in 1884. Her father, Elliott Roosevelt, was the younger brother of President Theodore Roosevelt, and her mother, Anna Hall Roosevelt, came from the prominent Livingston family. Her early years were marked by tragedy: Both of her parents and one of her brothers died before Roosevelt was 10 years old. Her maternal grandmother took over her care, but her strict ways hardly made for a nurturing home. When Roosevelt was 15, she left home for boarding school in England. There, the headmistress, Marie Souvestre, repaired her morale and greatly influenced her education and worldview. When Roosevelt returned to the U.S. at age 18, she started her lifelong commitment to social good, working with and advocating for marginalized groups in New York City.

After marrying Franklin D. Roosevelt, a distant cousin, in 1905, Eleanor Roosevelt took on the role of a traditional wife and mother. Her inner social consciousness blossomed as she volunteered for various relief agencies during World War I. By the 1920s, her husband was firmly entrenched in the political sphere, and Roosevelt was carving her own path as an active part of the women’s rights movement. After moving to the White House as first lady in 1933, Roosevelt rose to the occasion her new platform provided. She advocated for women’s rights in both political and professional roles and shared her progressive ideals with millions of Americans in her long-running newspaper column as well as hundreds of articles and many books.

After her husband’s death, Roosevelt’s influence only grew. As a delegate with the United Nations, she chaired the U.N. Human Rights Commission and played a pivotal role in drafting the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Her dedication to racial justice, freedom of thought and speech, and gender equality continued until her death in 1962 at age 78. In 2023, she was honored by the U.S. Mint’s American Women Quarters Program.