This oil portrait by an unknown artist is believed to depict Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945), the 32nd President of the United States. The painting is unsigned, and no identifying inscription has been located. The seller represented the work as antique, but the Museum has not yet independently established a firm date, artist, or provenance for the painting.

For that reason, the identification of Roosevelt is presently based primarily on the sitter’s strong visual resemblance to documented images of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Museum presents Roosevelt as the believed sitter rather than as a confirmed identification while research into the canvas, stretcher, materials, provenance, and history of the painting continues.

Mayflower Connection

Franklin D. Roosevelt was a documented descendant of numerous Mayflower passengers. The General Society of Mayflower Descendants identifies the 32nd President as a descendant of Isaac Allerton, Francis Cooke, John and Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland, Degory Priest, John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley, and Richard and Elizabeth (Walker) Warren. (Mayflower Society)

Roosevelt’s ancestry provides a direct connection between the history of Plymouth Colony and one of the most consequential American presidencies of the twentieth century. His inclusion in the Museum reflects one of its broader areas of interpretation: tracing how the descendants of Mayflower passengers continued to participate in American political, artistic, literary, scientific, and cultural history across later generations.

Franklin D. Roosevelt as President

Franklin Delano Roosevelt served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. He was elected president four times—in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944—making him the only U.S. president elected to four terms. (FDR Presidential Library & Museum)

Roosevelt entered office during the Great Depression. During his first years as president, his administration developed the New Deal, a broad group of federal programs and reforms intended to provide economic relief, encourage recovery, and reform aspects of the American financial system. Measures enacted during his presidency included the Social Security program and the Works Progress Administration. (FDR Presidential Library & Museum)

His presidency later became defined by World War II. As war spread through Europe, Roosevelt supported increasing American assistance to the Allied powers. Following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt addressed Congress the next day and requested a declaration of war against Japan. The United States then entered the global conflict. Roosevelt remained president through most of the war and died at Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945. (FDR Presidential Library & Museum)

His twelve years in office encompassed extraordinary changes in the relationship between the federal government and the American people, the nation’s response to economic crisis, and the emergence of the United States as a central participant in World War II.

A Connection to Preview 1: Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Van Buren

This portrait creates a particularly fitting connection with the first preview in this collection.

American Ancestors documents that Franklin D. Roosevelt and Martin Van Buren were third cousins four times removed through their shared descent from Teuwis Abrahamsz van Deursen and Helena Robberts of Albany, New York. Their cousin relationship comes through their shared Dutch New York ancestry rather than through Roosevelt’s Mayflower lines. (Vita Brevis)

The pairing therefore brings together two presidents from the same extended New York family network, separated by generations:

Preview 1 — An 1834 portrait believed to depict Martin Van Buren, who became the 8th President of the United States.

Preview 2 — A portrait believed to depict Van Buren’s distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President and a documented descendant of multiple Mayflower passengers.

The relationship adds another layer to the Museum’s exploration of the connections that can emerge between Mayflower descendants and individuals represented elsewhere in its holdings.

Why the Museum Is Investigating Franklin D. Roosevelt as the Sitter

• Visual resemblance. The attribution is based primarily on the sitter’s close resemblance to documented photographs and portraits of Franklin D. Roosevelt, particularly likenesses from the period surrounding his presidency.

• Facial characteristics. The Museum is comparing the sitter’s facial structure, eyes, nose, mouth, hairline, ears, and overall proportions with authenticated images of Roosevelt.

• Period appearance. The sitter’s hairstyle, clothing, and overall presentation are compatible with formal male portraiture of the period in which Roosevelt served as president. This supports continued investigation but does not independently establish either the sitter or the date.

• Extensive comparison material survives. Roosevelt was extensively photographed and portrayed during his lifetime, leaving a substantial body of documented visual material that can be used for comparison.

• No identifying signature has yet been located. Unlike the Charles Pierre Cior portrait presented in Preview 1, this painting currently has no known artist signature, inscription, label, or documentary provenance identifying its sitter. The attribution must therefore remain cautious unless further evidence emerges.

The Museum will continue researching the painting rather than treating visual resemblance alone as definitive identification.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Continuing Mayflower Story

Roosevelt’s ancestry illustrates one of the central ideas behind the Mayflower Descendants Museum: Mayflower history did not end with the passengers who arrived in 1620.

Their descendants continued through succeeding generations, becoming connected with virtually every area of American life. In Roosevelt’s case, lines descending from several Mayflower passengers eventually converged in the ancestry of a man who would serve twelve years as President of the United States and lead the nation through the Great Depression and most of World War II.

Whether additional evidence ultimately confirms the sitter in this painting as Roosevelt remains an open research question. Its current attribution nevertheless provides an opportunity to investigate the intersection of portraiture, genealogy, presidential history, and the continuing story of Mayflower descendants in America.

Object Information

Oil on canvas

Artist: Unknown

Date: Undetermined; represented by seller as antique

Believed sitter: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945)

32nd President of the United States

Documented Mayflower descendant

Attribution presently based primarily on visual comparison with authenticated likenesses

Holdings of the Mayflower Descendants Museum

Sources & Further Reading

General Society of Mayflower Descendants, “President’s Day 2021: Is Our New Commander-in-Chief a Mayflower Descendant?”

Identifies Franklin D. Roosevelt as the 32nd President and a descendant of Mayflower passengers Isaac Allerton, Francis Cooke, John and Elizabeth (Tilley) Howland, Degory Priest, John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley, and Richard and Elizabeth (Walker) Warren. (Mayflower Society)

https://themayflowersociety.org/news-events/presidents-day-2021/

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, “Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Presidency.”

Documents Roosevelt’s presidency, his first inauguration in 1933, and his unprecedented election to four presidential terms. (FDR Presidential Library & Museum)

https://www.fdrlibrary.org/fdr-presidency

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, “FDR Biography.”

Provides an overview of Roosevelt’s political career, the New Deal, Social Security, the Works Progress Administration, World War II, Pearl Harbor, his four presidential elections, and his death in April 1945. (FDR Presidential Library & Museum)

https://www.fdrlibrary.org/fdr-biography

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, “Four Presidential Inaugurations.”

Documents Roosevelt as the only American president elected and inaugurated four times. (FDR Presidential Library & Museum)

https://www.fdrlibrary.org/inaugurations

American Ancestors, “The Closest Presidential Kinships.”

Documents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Martin Van Buren as third cousins four times removed through their common ancestors Teuwis Abrahamsz van Deursen and Helena Robberts of Albany, New York. (Vita Brevis)

https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/03/the-closest-presidential-kinships

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, “Great Depression Facts.”

Discusses the New Deal, Social Security, unemployment insurance, and the expanded role of the federal government during Roosevelt’s presidency. (FDR Presidential Library & Museum)

https://www.fdrlibrary.org/great-depression-facts