Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945) was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States. Following an illness in 1921, he was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down, but he was careful never to be seen using his wheelchair in public. Returning to public life, Roosevelt served two terms as Governor of New York before becoming U.S. president in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression. By the time his second term as president concluded in 1941, World War II had started and he was re-elected in 1940 and 1944. In 1945, he suffered a massive intracerebral hemorrhage and died in office shortly before the end of the war. Roosevelt has been rated by scholars as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents.
This picture is a gelatin silver print of a photograph of Roosevelt, taken by Italian photographer Vincenzo Laviosa around 1932. The print is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.Photograph credit: Vincenzo Laviosa; restored by Yann Forget