Desk From FDR's Office Days Heads to His NY Estate

The desk Franklin D. Roosevelt worked at for eight years with a New York City insurance company is headed to his New York estate.

The walnut executive desk had been kept at the now-defunct Fidelity and Deposit Co. in Manhattan for nearly 60 years. Roosevelt resigned from the firm after being elected governor of New York in 1928.

Illinois-based Zurich American Insurance Co. owns the desk and will display it at its headquarters near Chicago. This spring, the desk will be donated to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Historians say the Manhattan insurance company hired FDR because of his extensive contacts in the military, industry and government.