Eleanor Roosevelt Trivia
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49 free Eleanor Roosevelt trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Eleanor Roosevelt trivia quiz covers the niece of one president and wife of another who redefined the role of First Lady and then chaired the committee that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The easier questions cover the basics: her uncle Theodore, her marriage to Franklin, her record 12 years in the White House, her daily column and her nickname 'First Lady of the World'. The harder end is for people who have read the biographies: the London headmistress who shaped her, the affair with Lucy Mercer she discovered in a suitcase, the mother-in-law who ran her household through sliding doors, the papier-mâché teapot she used against her own cousin, the women-only press conferences, the Arthurdale experiment, the DAR resignation and Marian Anderson's Lincoln Memorial concert, the flight with a Tuskegee instructor, the sapphire ring from Lorena Hickok, the 1943 Pacific tour Admiral Halsey praised, René Cassin and John Humphrey on the drafting committee, and the Kennedy commission she chaired at the end of her life. There are also questions on Val-Kill, Hyde Park and how she is ranked by historians. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for Eleanor Roosevelt, her family, her friends and the institutions she served before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, our Franklin D. Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, US first ladies and Harry S. Truman quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How was Eleanor related to President Theodore Roosevelt?
His niece
His niece: her father was Theodore's younger brother, so she was born a Roosevelt and kept her surname when she married Franklin.
Q 02What nickname did Eleanor's mother give her for being such an old-fashioned child?
Granny
Granny: her mother, one of New York's great society beauties, teased her for her plain, serious manner. Eleanor later wrote, 'I was a solemn child without beauty.'
Q 03At 15 Eleanor was sent to Allenswood Academy, a finishing school in which city?
London
London: Allenswood's headmistress Marie Souvestre pushed her girls to think for themselves, and Eleanor later named her among the greatest influences on her life.
Q 04Before becoming her husband, Franklin D. Roosevelt was already Eleanor's what?
Fifth cousin once removed
Fifth cousin once removed: Franklin's mother Sara opposed the match and made the couple keep their engagement secret for a year.
Q 05Eleanor and Franklin's wedding was set for which holiday, when President Theodore Roosevelt would be in New York for the parade?
St. Patrick's Day
St. Patrick's Day: the president came to town for the parade on March 17, 1905, then gave the bride away, and the wedding made the front page of The New York Times.
Q 06How did Franklin's mother Sara link the couple's New York townhouse to her own?
By sliding doors
By sliding doors: Sara had the twin townhouses built with connecting doors between them, and she went on to run both households.
Q 07In 1918 Eleanor discovered Franklin's affair with Lucy Mercer, whom she had hired in 1914 as what?
Her social secretary
Her social secretary: Lucy Mercer ran Eleanor's Washington social calendar and filled empty seats at dinner. Eleanor found her letters in Franklin's luggage, and the couple weighed divorce.
Q 08Lucy Mercer, by then the widowed Mrs Rutherfurd, was quietly present at which event?
Franklin's fatal stroke at Warm Springs
Franklin's fatal stroke at Warm Springs: he had promised Eleanor never to see Lucy again, and she was hurt to learn that Lucy had been with him when he died.
Q 09Where was the family holidaying in August 1921 when Franklin was struck by his paralytic illness?
Campobello Island, New Brunswick
Campobello Island, New Brunswick: afterwards Sara wanted Franklin to retire to Hyde Park as a country gentleman, but Eleanor backed his return to politics.
Q 10In New York's 1924 governor's race, Eleanor trailed her Republican cousin in a car topped with what?
A giant papier-mâché teapot
A giant papier-mâché teapot, rigged to puff steam, tied the Republican to the Teapot Dome oil scandal while she campaigned for his rival, Al Smith.
Q 11What does Val-Kill, the name of Eleanor's Hyde Park cottage retreat, roughly mean in Dutch?
Waterfall-stream
Waterfall-stream: the stone cottage stood on the banks of the Fall Kill creek, and Franklin encouraged Eleanor and two friends to build it in 1925 as a place of their own.
Q 12At Todhunter, the New York girls' school she co-owned from 1927, what did Eleanor teach?
History and literature
History and literature: her exams asked girls to argue for or against women holding office, and she kept teaching three days a week as the governor's wife. 'I teach because I love it,' she said.
Q 13Which record does Eleanor Roosevelt hold among America's First Ladies?
Q 21Eleanor Roosevelt quit the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1939 after it barred which singer from its hall?
Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson was refused the hall because she was Black. Eleanor resigned in protest and then helped arrange a far bigger open-air concert for her in the capital.
Q 22Where did the singer barred by the DAR in 1939 give her open-air concert instead, with Eleanor's help?
The Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial: on Easter Sunday the contralto sang from its steps to about 75,000 people and a radio audience of millions, singing 'My Country, 'Tis of Thee' before Lincoln's statue.
Q 23Eleanor lobbied for the 1934 Costigan–Wagner Bill, which aimed to do what?
Longest time in the role
Longest time in the role: Franklin won four elections, so she served just over twelve years, though she had told a reporter in 1932, 'I never wanted to be a President's wife.'
Q 14Which first for a presidential spouse did Eleanor achieve in July 1940?
Addressing a national party convention
Addressing a national party convention: she went to Chicago to speak for Franklin's disputed choice of Henry Wallace as running mate, and talked one of her own sons out of nominating a rival.
Q 15Who was barred from Eleanor's White House press conferences?
Male reporters
Male reporters were kept out, so newspapers and news agencies had to keep or hire women to cover the briefings.
Q 16What was the title of Eleanor's syndicated newspaper column, which ran from 1935 until 1962?
My Day
My Day: the syndicate chose the title and asked for a chatty diary of her days, but she soon turned the column into a platform for the New Deal, civil rights and later the United Nations.
Q 17Which paid work did Eleanor swear off in 1933 after an avalanche of critical letters, then resume the next year?
Sponsored radio shows
Sponsored radio shows: she broke her own rule in 1934 to raise money for charity, and had her fees sent straight to the causes she chose.
Q 18A veteran of the 1933 bonus march said Roosevelt 'sent his wife' to their camp, whereas Hoover had sent what?
The Army
The Army: in 1932 troops under Douglas MacArthur had tear-gassed the veterans and burned their shacks. A year later Eleanor came without Secret Service guards and mixed easily with the men.
Q 19Eleanor's chief New Deal project, the Arthurdale community for jobless coal miners, was built in which state?
West Virginia
West Virginia: she pressed for indoor plumbing and insulation in the miners' new houses and even persuaded General Electric to open a plant there, but the government sold out in 1941.
Q 20Norvelt, a New Deal town in Pennsylvania that Eleanor visited, takes its name from what?
The ends of her two names
The ends of her two names: residents of the relief community were so taken by her visit that they renamed it for EleaNOR RooseVELT.
Make lynching a federal crime
Make lynching a federal crime: Eleanor backed the NAACP's Walter White in pressing for the bill, but Franklin would not publicly support it for fear of losing Southern votes in Congress.
Q 24At Tuskegee in 1941, what did Eleanor do despite her Secret Service detail's worries?
Flew with a Black pilot
Flew with a Black pilot: the airfield's chief flight instructor took her up over Alabama, and she had the flight photographed so she could carry the picture back to Franklin.
Q 25Which of Franklin's wartime orders, signed in February 1942, did Eleanor privately protest to him?
The internment of Japanese Americans
The internment of Japanese Americans: shocked by Executive Order 9066, she objected in private, met a 'frigid' response, and after touring the Gila River camp in 1943 pressed Franklin to start releasing people.
Q 26In 1941 Eleanor took an unpaid Office of Civilian Defense post as deputy to which mayor?
Fiorello La Guardia of New York
Fiorello La Guardia of New York ran the air-raid drills while she pushed the agency's volunteer and welfare work. Attacked in Congress over a friend's salary, she resigned in February 1942.
Q 27Which admiral said Eleanor Roosevelt's 1943 South Pacific tour did 'more good than any other person' who visited?
William Halsey Jr.
William Halsey Jr. had dreaded the visit and dismissed her as a 'do-gooder', then changed his mind completely once he saw her effect on his men.
Q 28Which Associated Press reporter grew so close to Eleanor on the 1932 campaign that she gave up the beat?
Lorena Hickok
Lorena Hickok left the AP in 1933 because she could no longer report objectively on Eleanor and Franklin. Eleanor found her a job investigating relief conditions, and she later lived at the White House.
Q 29Which agency's director thought Eleanor a communist pawn and built one of its largest files on her?
The FBI
The FBI: J. Edgar Hoover had agents monitor her and record her telephone calls, convinced that her defence of civil rights and civil liberties made her a tool of the communists.
Q 30Whom did Franklin take to the Yalta Conference in 1945 as his aide and companion?
Their daughter Anna
Their daughter Anna had moved back into the White House as his assistant, and stood in as hostess whenever Eleanor was away.