--- aliases: - Frederic Adrian Delano - Frederick Adrian Delano - Frederic A. Delano - Frederick A. Delano - F. A. Delano - Frederic Delano category: Intelligence & Government created: 2026-10-26 location: Hong Kong; Chicago; Newburgh, New York; Washington, D.C. relations: - fn: 1 role: maternal uncle of the President type: relative_of with: '[[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]' - fn: 1 role: son of Warren Delano Jr. and Catherine Robbins Lyman type: relative_of with: '[[Warren Delano Jr.]]' - fn: 4 role: brother of Sara Delano Roosevelt type: relative_of with: '[[Sara Delano Roosevelt]]' - fn: 3 role: uncle of Lyman Delano, son of Warren Delano III type: relative_of with: '[[Lyman Delano]]' - fn: 3 role: married at Chicago start: 1888-11-22 type: spouse_of with: '[[Matilda Annis Peasley]]' - end: 1905-12-31 fn: 6 role: machinist's apprentice (1885), then superintendent of freight terminals, superintendent of motive power (1899), vice president (1901) and general manager at Chicago start: 1885-01-01 type: employed_by with: '[[Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad]]' - end: 1911-12-31 fn: 9 role: president, succeeding Joseph Ramsey Jr. start: 1905-10-05 type: head_of with: '[[Wabash Railroad]]' - end: 1913-12-31 fn: 14 role: receiver with Edward B. Pryor and William K. Bixby under Judge Elmer B. Adams start: 1911-12-01 type: appointed with: '[[Wabash Railroad]]' - end: 1914-08-10 fn: 14 role: president (the Monon) start: 1913-12-27 type: head_of with: '[[Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway]]' - end: 1916-08-09 fn: 16 role: vice governor start: 1914-08-10 type: appointed with: '[[Federal Reserve Board]]' - end: 1918-07-21 fn: 19 role: member, resigned for service with the Army Engineer Corps in France start: 1916-08-10 type: member_of with: '[[Federal Reserve Board]]' - end: 1936-12-31 fn: 16 role: Class C director; chairman from March to December 1936 start: 1921-01-01 type: director_of with: '[[Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond]]' - end: 1919-10-25 fn: 15 role: Army Engineer Corps officer, then lieutenant colonel and colonel of the Transportation Corps, deputy director general of transportation start: 1918-07-21 type: participant_in with: '[[American Expeditionary Forces]]' - end: 1925-06-01 fn: 22 role: receiver of the disputed Red River lands in Oklahoma v. Texas start: 1920-04-01 type: appointed with: '[[Supreme Court of the United States]]' - end: 1927-09-30 fn: 24 role: chairman of the Commission of Enquiry into the Production of Opium in Persia start: 1925-12-01 type: head_of with: '[[League of Nations]]' - end: 1939-12-31 fn: 36 role: trustee; declined re-election when his term expired in November 1939 start: 1922-05-10 type: director_of with: '[[Russell Sage Foundation]]' - end: 1929-12-31 fn: 36 role: chairman of the committee after Charles Dyer Norton died in March 1923 start: 1923-04-01 type: head_of with: '[[Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs]]' - end: 1942-12-31 fn: 37 role: chairman start: 1924-01-01 type: head_of with: '[[National Capital Park and Planning Commission]]' - end: 1934-06-30 fn: 44 role: chairman, within the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works start: 1933-07-20 type: head_of with: '[[National Planning Board]]' - end: 1939-06-30 fn: 45 role: vice chairman, as listed in 1937 start: 1935-06-07 type: member_of with: '[[National Resources Committee]]' - end: 1943-08-31 fn: 51 role: chairman until the Board was abolished by the appropriation act of June 26, 1943 start: 1939-07-01 type: head_of with: '[[National Resources Planning Board]]' - fn: 57 role: director or honorary counselor, according to accounts by Seagrave and Ford; subject file in the Roosevelt Library papers start: 1941-01-01 type: participant_in with: '[[China Defense Supplies]]' - end: 1947-08-21 fn: 52 role: citizen regent, reappointed by joint resolutions of August 7, 1935 and August 21, 1941 start: 1935-08-07 type: director_of with: '[[Smithsonian Institution]]' - fn: 54 role: secretary of the board of trustees start: 1944-07-01 type: director_of with: '[[Carnegie Institution of Washington]]' summary: Railroad executive and vice governor of the Federal Reserve Board who chaired the League of Nations opium commission in Persia and the National Planning Board, and was the uncle of Franklin D. Roosevelt. tags: - Person - Delano - DelanoFamily - Roosevelt - Railroads - Wabash - Monon - FederalReserve - RegionalPlan - NationalResourcesPlanningBoard - LeagueOfNations - OpiumTrade - Persia - Smithsonian - RussellSageFoundation - WorldWarOne - ChinaDefenseSupplies - FlyingTigers updated: 2026-10-26 --- Frederic Adrian Delano (September 10, 1863 to March 28, 1953) was a railroad executive, a member of the [Federal Reserve Board](/organizations/federal-reserve-board/) from 1914 to 1918, an Army transportation officer in France, the chairman of the League of Nations commission of enquiry into opium production in Persia, and the chairman of the National Planning Board and later of the National Resources Planning Board. He was the son of [Warren Delano Jr.](/people/warren-delano-jr/), a partner in [Russell and Company](/organizations/russell-and-company/), and the uncle of [Franklin D. Roosevelt](/people/franklin-d-roosevelt/).[^1] ### Birth, family and Harvard The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library finding aid for his papers states that "Frederic Adrian Delano, Franklin D. Roosevelt's uncle, was born in Hong Kong, China on September 10, 1863." His father was then a partner in Russell and Company at [Hong Kong](/places/hong-kong/). A few years later the family returned to Algonac, the family home near Newburgh, New York, where he spent much of his childhood.[^1] He graduated from [Harvard University](/organizations/harvard-university/) in 1885, and the class secretary's report lists him under natural history.[^2] On November 22, 1888 at [Chicago](/places/chicago/) he married Matilda Annis Peasley, a daughter of James C. Peasley and Louisa (Green) Peasley of Burlington, Iowa. The 1899 family genealogy lists three daughters: Catherine, born November 25, 1889; Louise, born August 1, 1891; and Laura, born February 23, 1893.[^3] Two of them, Catherine Delano Grant and Laura Delano Houghteling, gave his papers to the Roosevelt Library, and Laura Delano Houghteling was co-executrix of his estate.[^1] His sister Sara Delano Roosevelt married James Roosevelt in 1880. The family papers hold her letters to the family from 1863 to 1877 and the condolences received on the death of his other sister, Laura Franklin Delano, in 1884. His nephew was Lyman Delano, a son of Warren Delano III.[^4][^3] ### The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy He entered the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1885 as a machinist's apprentice. The biography printed when he was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board gives the sequence: railway inspection tests from 1887 to 1889, a year as assistant to the second vice president, nine years as superintendent of freight terminals at Chicago, two years as superintendent of motive power, and four years as general manager, ending in 1905. The same biography says that he then served for a short period as consulting engineer for the United States War Department and the Philippine Commission.[^5] The railroad trade press of April 1905 records that he became superintendent of motive power in 1899 and in 1901 vice president and general manager of the lines east of the Missouri River, a position he resigned in the latter part of 1904, and the Roosevelt Library finding aid gives his service as general manager as 1901 through 1904.[^6][^1] In its 1912 report on the foundation named for Charles Elliott Perkins, a member of the [Perkins family](/people/perkins-family/), the Harvard Commission on Western History wrote: "Both Elliott and Delano were trained under Mr. Perkins, in whose memory the Foundation is named." The same report describes Delano, class of 1885, as president of the Wabash Railroad.[^7] ### The Wabash and the Monon In April 1905 Delano was elected president of the Wabash-Pittsburg Terminal Railway and vice president in charge of all Wabash properties, with Henry Miller as general manager. The wire reports of the election described the appointment as part of the reorganization of the roads of George J. Gould.[^6][^8] On October 5, 1905 the directors of the Wabash removed the president, Joseph Ramsey Jr., "on the ground that he had made an attack upon the railroad," and elected Delano in his place. The directors present besides Ramsey were Gould, Edgar T. Welles, Thomas H. Hubbard, John T. Terry, Winslow S. Pierce and E. T. Jeffery, and Delano was also present. Ramsey sought an injunction on the ground that the Missouri Pacific Railroad was a competing parallel line with the Wabash, and the account of the meeting calls Russell Sage "for years a friend and ally of Jay Gould." Delano had succeeded Ramsey several months earlier as president of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway and of the Wabash-Pittsburg Terminal.[^9] The Wabash directors re-elected him in October 1908, and the minutes of a court record of 1907 identify him as "president of the said defendant The Wabash Railroad Company."[^10][^11][^12] In December 1911 the Wabash was forced into receivership, and Delano was appointed one of its receivers.[^5] The receivers were Delano, Edward B. Pryor and William K. Bixby, under Judge Elmer B. Adams of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals. The annual reports for 1912 and 1913 list the receivers and the directors, who included Gould, Robert Goelet, H. Rogers Winthrop, Pierce and Jeffery.[^13] When Delano left the receivership, the judge's letter, as published in December 1913, called him an "honest, faithful and efficient public servant," and the published notice added: "No successor will be appointed, Bixby and Pryor continuing to administer the receivership."[^14] On December 27, 1913 the trade press reported his election as president of the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway, "known as the Monon," in succession to Fairfax Harrison, who had become president of the Southern Railway.[^14] The Roosevelt Library finding aid dates his Monon presidency to January 1911 and his resignation to August 10, 1914, on his appointment to the Federal Reserve Board.[^1] The 1914 biography calls him "now president" of the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville road when he was nominated to the Board.[^5] A January 1919 article described him as "formerly president of the Wabash and later of the Monon."[^15] ### The Federal Reserve Board President Woodrow Wilson nominated Delano in August 1914 "to take the place of Thomas D. Jones, the Chicago banker whose name was withdrawn as a candidate for the Federal Reserve Board."[^5] He took office as vice governor on August 10, 1914, one of the five members appointed by Wilson to the first Board, and served as vice governor until August 9, 1916. He remained a member until July 21, 1918.[^16] The Board's January 1916 bulletin lists "FREDERIC A. DELANO, Vice Governor," with Charles S. Hamlin as governor.[^17] The minutes of March 6, 1916 record "Present: Mr. Hamlin, Governor; Mr. Delano, Vice Governor; Mr. Miller; Mr. Harding; Mr. Warburg; Mr. Williams," and the Board's report for 1916 carries the signatures of William P. G. Harding as governor, Paul M. Warburg as vice governor and Delano as a member.[^18] In late June 1918 Delano asked the President to release him from the Board so that he could serve with the American forces in France as an officer of the United States Army Engineer Corps engaged in the construction and operation of military railways. The Board's minutes, reproduced in the July 1, 1918 bulletin, read: "The Board has heard with extreme regret of the proposed resignation of Mr. F. A. Delano." The entry continues: "Mr. Delano has served two years as vice governor of the Board and for nearly two years additional as member." The bulletin notes that his retirement "constitutes the first change" in the membership since the Board was organized.[^19] After the war Delano returned to Federal Reserve service as a Class C director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond from 1921, and he chaired the Richmond bank's board from March to December 1936.[^16] ### The Army Transportation Corps in France The Federal Reserve History profile states that Delano served as a major in the Army Engineer Corps at Tours. It records that in October 1918 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Transportation Corps and appointed deputy director general of transportation for the American Expeditionary Forces, that he became a colonel of the Transportation Corps in May 1919, and that he was discharged on October 25, 1919. In January 1920, the profile states, he was "appointed command colonel engineer for the Reserve Corps."[^16] The class notes of the Harvard Alumni Bulletin list "Frederic A. Delano, '85, Chicago, Ill. Major, Eng." among the Harvard men in service in 1918, and record in 1919 that he "is a lieutenant colonel and deputy director general of transportation, stationed at Paris."[^20] The Railway Age of January 3, 1919 identifies "Lieut.-Col. Frederic A. Delano, Deputy Director General of Transportation" as the author of a special report on the French chef-de-gare system, and it places him in Paris: "is located in Paris, and handles relations with the higher officers of the French railways." The same issue's list of principal officers names William Wallace Atterbury as Director General of Transportation and William J. Wilgus as deputy director general, with Delano among the other officers listed.[^15] In a paper he wrote for the Coast Artillery Journal in 1923 under the byline "Colonel Frederic A. Delano, late Transportation Corps, A.E.F.," the editor described him as having served "as Deputy Director General of Transportation, being the American representative in the French Ministry of Public Works."[^21] The Federal Reserve History profile records that he received the Legion of Honor from France in 1919, the Distinguished Service Medal of the United States in 1921, and the Order of Sheng Li from the Chinese government in 1948.[^16] ### Oklahoma v. Texas and the Red River lands The [Supreme Court of the United States](/organizations/supreme-court-of-the-united-states/) named Delano receiver of the disputed Red River lands in Oklahoma v. Texas in April 1920. He served until the Court's final decree on June 1, 1925.[^1] The Court's decree of 1924 provides for property to be released "from the existing receivership."[^22] His papers include the receivership's Supreme Court documents, a three-volume "History of the Receivership," two albums of photographs of the oil lands, and the receiver's reports of January and April 1925.[^1] ### The League of Nations commission on opium in Persia The historian Arnold H. Taylor writes that Elizabeth Washburn Wright, after approaching some seven or eight persons, including Owen D. Young and Norman Davis, secured Delano to head the commission. Taylor also writes that before the League decided to send the commission, Wright had obtained a pledge from the Bureau of Social Hygiene that it would underwrite the project financially, and that when the Sixth Assembly reduced the proposed appropriation from 200,000 to 100,000 francs, Wright and Helen H. Moorhead persuaded the foundation to supply the additional 100,000 francs.[^23] Taylor writes that the [State Department](/organizations/state-department/), although it approved the project, "refrained from associating in any manner with the commission," refused formal assurances, and limited its support to informal assistance to the American finally chosen to head it, so that the work of influencing the composition of the commission fell to private citizens. The Department's files on the matter include a memorandum by [Allen Dulles](/people/allen-dulles/) of a conversation with Delano on December 22, 1925.[^23] The commission is listed in a 1928 study published by the Bureau of Social Hygiene as "composed of Mr. Frederic A. Delano (United States of America), a former member of the Federal Reserve Board, Chairman," with Fridiano Cavara of Italy and Victor Cayla of France.[^24] Taylor names Delano's staff as J. B. Knight, an agricultural expert, and Archibald MacLeish as private secretary. The Roosevelt Library's finding aid describes MacLeish as "his personal private secretary," and it holds the diaries that Delano and MacLeish kept on the Persian journey, letters from Delano to his wife written from [Geneva](/places/geneva/), and two drafts of the report to the Council, the "Delano Draft" and the "MacLeish Draft."[^23][^1] The Foreign Policy Association's Opium Research Committee published a 1928 study by Elizabeth P. MacCallum, which gives the commission's departure from Geneva as March 11, 1926 and its return to Marseilles on June 16, after seventy-five days in Persia, and describes the party as the three commissioners "accompanied by an American agricultural expert, a general secretary, private secretary and stenographer."[^25] Taylor gives the commission's travel through Persia as March 24 to June 6, 1926.[^23] The report to the Council, document C.580.M.219.1926.XI, is dated December 1926.[^26][^27] It states that the Commission "has arrived at the conclusion that, while difficult of accomplishment, it is possible and practically feasible, and to the economic interest of Persia, to adopt a programme for the gradual diminution of the cultivation of the opium poppy." The report cites a letter from the Persian Prime Minister to the President of the Commission dated June 1, 1926, which states: "Nevertheless, the Persian Government will take immediate measures to reduce the production of opium to medicinal requirements and will prosecute these measures as rapidly as circumstances permit." On the cash yield, the report states that "the cash yield per unit from the production of poppy to the cultivator is about four times the yield from the growing of wheat."[^27] The Commission's conclusions place the remedy in transport, water, fuel and tariffs. They state that Persia "is suffering seriously from wretchedly inadequate means of internal communication," that roads for wheeled vehicles were needed, and that there was "an argument, supported not solely on economic grounds, but also by strong political and military reasons, for building a railroad from the capital to a port on the Persian Gulf." They also state that a revival of the dying industries "can only be brought about by a protective tariff." On the use of opium, which the Persian Government considered "a serious menace," the Commission "came to the conclusion that it was even a more serious menace than was usually appreciated; that it was slowly but surely destroying the man-power of the country; that it was impossible to produce opium for export and not have it also consumed in considerable quantities at home."[^28] Delano's own summary of the findings, in an extract from a letter to the Secretary-General of the League signed by him, runs to fourteen numbered findings. They include that "the Persian people as a whole are poor," that "Land titles in the same way are indefinite and insecure," and that opium poppy "is an ideal crop from several points of view," with a money yield per acre "say, four times that of wheat and barley."[^28][^29] The letter, as printed in the United States Daily of July 6, 1927, sets out the commission's recommendation: Persia was to be given three years to improve its internal economic condition and build up its revenues, and production was then to be reduced by 10 per cent annually.[^30] The report's numbered suggestions on taxation, licensing and marking of opium pieces are reproduced in MacCallum's study.[^29] Taylor records that the commission did not recommend a loan to Persia, and that Delano and Arthur C. Millspaugh both agreed the proposal for a loan had been unwise.[^31] The Persian Government expressed willingness to enter upon a plan of reduction after a three-year preparatory period, but stipulated that the annual ten per cent reductions should be a three-year experiment only, at the end of which it would reconsider its economic position and observe the degree to which other producing countries had curtailed production. Because the Commission had not stated the time or the cost of substitution, it maintained that it could not ask the Mejliss to endorse an unqualified program of reduction.[^32] Colonel D. W. MacCormack presented the Persian observations to the Council in March 1927 and to the Fifth Committee of the Assembly in September 1927, after Delano had addressed the Committee for the Commission. The Assembly's resolution took note of "the letter from the Chairman of the Commission of Enquiry to the Secretary-General dated April 23rd, 1927," and expressed "its sincere thanks to the members of the Commission for their valuable work."[^33][^31] The columnist Westbrook Pegler wrote in December 1945 that Warren Delano was "the old Canton opium smuggler, who founded the Delano fortune in this trade," and described Frederic as "a brother of the late Sara Delano Roosevelt." Pegler added: "Ironically, Uncle Frederic's biography reveals that he served for a time as chairman 'of the international commission of the League of Nations on inquiry into the production of opium in Persia.'"[^34] ### The Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs On May 10, 1922 the trustees of the Russell Sage Foundation named a committee on a plan of New York and its environs, with Charles Dyer Norton as chairman and Robert W. de Forest, Delano, John M. Glenn, Dwight W. Morrow and Frank L. Polk as members.[^35] The foundation's history records that after Norton died in March 1923, Delano succeeded him as chairman. The history describes Norton and Delano as "one of the initiators of the Chicago City Plan."[^36] Before the First World War, the 1953 obituary in Planning magazine says, he had been a member of the citizens' group in Chicago that sponsored the pioneer plan for that city.[^37] The committee of 1925 consisted of Delano, de Forest, Polk, Glenn, Frederic B. Pratt, Morrow and Lawson Purdy, with Thomas Adams as general director of plans and surveys.[^38] The first volume, *The Graphic Regional Plan* (1929), lists the committee under "Frederic A. Delano, Chairman," adds John H. Finley, Henry James and George McAneny, and is signed by Delano. It is dedicated to Norton.[^39] The plan was presented to the public on May 27, 1929. Delano said in presenting it that the quantity and variety of detail the survey required were "almost terrifying."[^36] The population of the 436 cities, villages and towns of the region was then some 10,000,000.[^40] A British architectural journal described him in August 1929 as "a former railway president and member of the Federal Reserve Board."[^41] The President's Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership printed Delano's name as chairman of its committee on city planning and zoning.[^42] ### The National Capital Park and Planning Commission The Roosevelt Library's finding aid states that President Calvin Coolidge appointed Delano president of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1927.[^1] The 1953 Planning magazine obituary dates his chairmanship of the commission from 1924 to 1942.[^37] The Federal Reserve History profile lists him as chairman emeritus of the American Planning and Civic Association.[^16] ### The National Planning Board and the National Resources Planning Board In July 1933 Harold L. Ickes, as Public Works Administrator, announced a planning board to study the social and economic effects of public works. The board consisted of Delano, Wesley C. Mitchell of [Columbia University](/organizations/columbia-university/), Charles E. Merriam of the University of Chicago, and Charles Eliot 3rd as executive secretary.[^43] The National Archives describes the sequence that followed. The National Planning Board was established within the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works on July 20, 1933. It was superseded by the National Resources Board under Executive Order 6777 on June 30, 1934, and that board was replaced by the National Resources Committee under Executive Order 7065 on June 7, 1935. The National Resources Planning Board was established by Reorganization Plan No. I of 1939, effective July 1, 1939. The record group includes a series titled "Records of Chairman Frederic A. Delano," and the National Archives states that he served on the Board and its predecessors from July 1933 to August 1943, as chairman of the National Planning Board in 1933 and 1934 and of the National Resources Planning Board from 1939.[^44] In 1937 the proceedings of the National Planning Conference list him as "Vice-Chairman, National Resources Committee."[^45] The finding aid says that Roosevelt named him in 1933 as chairman for ten years.[^1] The obituary says that Delano "was appointed Chairman of the National Planning Board in 1934 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his nephew."[^37] When his term on the Russell Sage Foundation board expired in November 1939 he declined re-election, because his duties on the planning board in [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/) had grown heavy.[^36] The April 2, 1943 issue of United States News profiled him at the age of 79 and referred to the recently announced "cradle-to-grave" plan.[^46] That plan, the Board's 1943 report on social security and work, was taken up in Congress within weeks. In the House, Representative Noah M. Mason of Illinois, who had credited the plan to Eveline M. Burns of the Board's staff, said that behind her was "a whole group that is working for the same cause," and when Representative August H. Andresen asked whether Delano subscribed to it, Mason answered that "Mr. Delano's whole life history proves that he does not believe in any socialistic philosophy. He has had a remarkable career as a practical man at the head of a railroad."[^47] In the Senate on May 27, 1943, Senator Robert A. Taft rose "to oppose the proposed increase in the appropriation for the National Resources Planning Board offered by the Senator from Tennessee, and also to oppose the committee amendment which would appropriate $200,000 for the National Resources Planning Board, after all appropriations for that board have been eliminated by the House of Representatives." Taft placed in the Record Delano's letter to him of May 20, 1943, in which the chairman wrote that "the Board neither advocates nor believes in" continuous deficit financing.[^48] Senator Kenneth McKellar, who had offered the increase, read to the Senate a letter of February 22, 1943 from the Office of the Chief of Transportation of the War Department, addressed to Delano, which expressed "the appreciation I feel for the help which the National Resources Planning Board has been able to give the Highway Division during the past year."[^49] Senator Charles L. McNary then had the clerk read Delano's letter to him of May 26, 1943, which called a book by the Brookings Institution economist Harold G. Moulton "false in detail and deliberately misleading in purpose," and Taft replied: "Mr. Delano is an estimable gentleman. I can only conclude that he simply has not read the reports written by subordinates."[^50] Congress abolished the Board in the appropriation act of June 26, 1943. The act appropriated $50,000 "for all expenses incident to the discontinuance of the work of the Board," and provided: "Provided, That the National Resources Planning Board is abolished effective August 31, 1943, and the functions exercised by such Board shall not be transferred to any other agency." It directed that the Board's records and files be transferred to the National Archives.[^51] The obituary records that he and Charles E. Merriam served with the agency through its various changes of name until its final dissolution in 1943.[^37] His papers include subject files on the Harvard University Committee on Regional Planning, the Washington Monument and the trees of the District of Columbia.[^1] ### The Smithsonian Institution and the Carnegie Institution He served as a citizen regent of the Smithsonian Institution. His term expired on January 21, 1935, and he was reappointed "for another 6 years by Joint Resolution of Congress approved August 7, 1935."[^52] A joint resolution approved August 21, 1941 reappointed him "to succeed himself for the statutory term of 6 years." In the fiscal year 1942 the Regents' Executive Committee consisted of Delano, Vannevar Bush and Clarence Cannon.[^53] The 1936 annual report records that Delano presented the Executive Committee's report on the Institution's financial statistics.[^52] The Carnegie Institution of Washington's year book for 1944 to 1945 lists him as secretary of the board of trustees, with Walter S. Gifford as chairman and Elihu Root Jr. as vice chairman; Bush was president of the Institution and the trustees included Herbert Hoover.[^54] His papers include subject files on the Carnegie Institution, the Brookings Institution and the [Carnegie Endowment for International Peace](/organizations/carnegie-endowment-for-international-peace/).[^1] The Federal Reserve History profile describes him as a trustee and as chairman of the Brookings Institution's board.[^16] The 1953 obituary describes him as an overseer of Harvard University and as a trustee of the University of Chicago.[^37] ### China Defense Supplies China Defense Supplies, Inc. was the Chinese purchasing and supply agency in the United States through which lend-lease aid for China was requisitioned. According to the Army's official history, it began presenting detailed requisitions against the approved thirty division program in May 1941.[^55] The Army's history of Chennault's American Volunteer Group states that the equipment and personnel for the group were bought and hired through a commercial company, the Chinese Aircraft Manufacturing Company (CAMCO), run by William D. Pawley, and that "the board of directors of China Defense Supplies, Inc., a subsidiary of CAMCO based in the United States, included both Franklin Delano, the President's uncle, and Washington lawyer Thomas Corcoran, a close friend and special advisor to President Roosevelt."[^56] The official history of the China theater adds that in the dispute over equipping the group's P-40 fighters, China Defense Supplies argued "that if the British could not equip the aircraft the War Department had to."[^55] Accounts differ on the capacity in which Delano appeared. The journalist Sterling Seagrave wrote that "One of the directors of China Defense Supplies was Frederic Delano, the President's uncle." The historian Daniel Ford wrote that T. V. Soong was chairman of the company and that Roosevelt's "elderly uncle, Frederic Delano, signed on as 'honorary counselor.'" John Pomfret wrote that Roosevelt's uncle, "the Hong Kong-born Frederic Delano," was made honorary chairman.[^57][^58][^59] Delano's papers at the Roosevelt Library include a subject file on China Defense Supplies, alongside files on the Samuel Russell Company and the Vinton Colliery Company.[^1] A history of the Lafayette Escadrille, the RAF Eagle squadrons and the Flying Tigers published by Air University lists the roster of China Defense Supplies as including "FDR's cousin Frederick T. Delano, head," together with the congressional liaison William Brennan, the lawyer and marine officer Quinn Shaughnessy, the general counsel William Youngman and Whiting Willauer. The Frederick T. Delano of that roster is not otherwise identified, and the account does not say whether he is the same man as Frederic Adrian Delano.[^60] ### Business interests After the war he was chairman of the board of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad in Chicago and a director of the Union Mining Company of [Maryland](/places/maryland/).[^16] The Federal Reserve History profile says that he patented a one-way window glass in 1933.[^16] His papers include subject files on the Samuel Russell Company, the Vinton Colliery Company, the Investors' Equity Company, the Mineral Exploration Company, the New Boston Land Company, the Stable Money Association and the National Council for Prevention of War.[^1] Pegler's column of December 5, 1945 named a coal mine and company town called Vintondale in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, among the properties and sources of income of the Delano family, and wrote that "Frederic Delano, of Washington, an uncle of the late president, and numerous other Delanos, still have financial interests in the properties." The column quotes a statement defending commissions paid to a sales company, which said: "It is only by reason of advances made by the Delano coal company that the Vinton colliery has been able to operate at all." It also quotes a Pittsburgh newspaper story of March 19, 1940 reporting that miners "woke up this morning to find Vinton Collieries Corp., had shut down the mines."[^34] ### Papers and death Delano died in Washington on March 28, 1953, at the age of 89.[^37] His papers at the Roosevelt Library occupy 12 linear feet and cover 1812 to 1959. They include speeches and writings from 1887 onward, arranged chronologically, and a scrapbook relating to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Correspondence between Delano and the Roosevelts is held in the papers of Eleanor Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt.[^1] The papers he kept while in the Army are at the Library of Congress.[^16] [^1]: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, finding aid for the Papers of Frederic A. Delano, 1812 to 1959, biographical note, series I to VI and subject file list. https://www.fdrlibrary.org/documents/356632/390886/findingaid_freddelano.pdf [^2]: Harvard College, Class of 1885, Secretary's Report, class list (Natural History). https://archive.org/details/n1secretarysre1885harvuoft [^3]: Joel Andrews Delano, *The Genealogy, History and Alliances of the American House of Delano, 1621 to 1899* (1899), the entry for Frederick Adrian Delano (marriage at Chicago, November 22, 1888; children Catherine, Louise and Laura) and the Warren Delano 3d entry (son Lyman). https://archive.org/details/genealogyhistory46dela [^4]: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, finding aid for the Papers of Frederic A. Delano, 1812 to 1959, series VI, family papers (correspondence of Sara Delano, 1863 to 1877; condolences on the death of Laura F. Delano, 1884). https://www.fdrlibrary.org/documents/356632/390886/findingaid_freddelano.pdf [^5]: *Engineering Record*, August 8, 1914, vol. 70, no. 6, "Frederic A. Delano Nominated for Federal Reserve Board" (career; presidency of the Wabash from October 5, 1905; December 1911 receivership; nomination to succeed Thomas D. Jones). https://archive.org/details/engineering-record_1914-08-08_70_6_0 [^6]: *Railroad Gazette*, April 28, 1905, the appointment of F. A. Delano to the vice presidency of the Wabash and the account of his career (born at Hong Kong September 10, 1863; Harvard 1885; apprentice machinist; superintendent of motive power 1899; vice president 1901). https://archive.org/details/sim_railway-age_1905-04-28_38_17 [^7]: Harvard Commission on Western History, *Charles Elliott Perkins Foundation* (1912), passage on Elliott and Delano. https://archive.org/details/harvardcommissi00histgoog [^8]: *Oakland Tribune*, April 24, 1905, wire report of the Wabash-Pittsburg Terminal election as part of the reorganization of the roads of George J. Gould. [^9]: *Chicago Daily Tribune*, October 6, 1905, p. 1, the removal of Joseph Ramsey Jr. "on the ground that he had made an attack upon the railroad," the directors present, the injunction proceedings, the succession at the Wheeling and Lake Erie, and the reference to Russell Sage as "for years a friend and ally of Jay Gould." https://archive.org/details/per_chicago-daily-tribune_1905-10-06_64_239 [^10]: *Engineering News*, November 2, 1905, the election of Delano as president of the Wabash. https://archive.org/details/sim_enr_1905-11-02_54_18_0 [^11]: *Fort Wayne Sentinel*, October 13, 1908, the re-election of Delano as president of the Wabash. https://archive.org/details/fort-wayne-sentinel-1908-10-13 [^12]: *In re Pollitz* (1907), record: "The defendant Frederic A. Delano is president of the said defendant The Wabash Railroad Company." [^13]: Wabash Railroad Company, *Annual Reports* for the fiscal years 1909, 1911, 1912 and 1913, lists of directors, officers and receivers. https://archive.org/details/annualreportdir04railgoog [^14]: *Traffic World*, December 27, 1913, vol. 12, no. 26, the receivership, the election as president of the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway to succeed Fairfax Harrison, and Judge Adams's letter. https://archive.org/details/sim_traffic-world_1913-12-27_12_26 [^15]: *Railway Age*, January 3, 1919, vol. 66, no. 1, special report on the French chef-de-gare system by Lieut.-Col. Frederic A. Delano, the principal officers of the Transportation Corps in France, and the description of Delano's post in Paris. https://archive.org/details/sim_railway-age_1919-01-03_66_1 [^16]: Federal Reserve History (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System), "Frederic A. Delano," biographical profile (vice governor 1914 to 1916, member to 1918, Army service and discharge, Reserve Corps appointment of January 1920, Richmond directorship and chairmanship, Brookings, American Planning and Civic Association, Metropolitan West Side Elevated, Union Mining Company, decorations, window glass patent, Library of Congress papers). https://www.federalreservehistory.org/people/frederic_a_delano [^17]: Federal Reserve Board, *Federal Reserve Bulletin*, January 1916, Board roster. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/FRB/1910s/frb_011916.pdf [^18]: Federal Reserve Board, *Third Annual Report* (for 1916), signature block, and the minutes of March 6, 1916. https://archive.org/details/annualreportfed00boargoog [^19]: Federal Reserve Board, *Federal Reserve Bulletin*, vol. 4, no. 7 (July 1, 1918), p. 587, "Resignation of the Federal Reserve Board." https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/FRB/1910s/frb_071918.pdf [^20]: *Harvard Alumni Bulletin*, 1918 to 1919 volume, class notes, Class of 1885 ("Frederic A. Delano, '85, Chicago, Ill. Major, Eng."; "Frederic A. Delano is a lieutenant colonel and deputy director general of transportation, stationed at Paris"). https://archive.org/details/harvardalumnibu00clubgoog [^21]: *The Coast Artillery Journal*, vol. 58, no. 2 (February 1923), "Railways and Their Relations to National Defense," by Colonel Frederic A. Delano, late Transportation Corps, A.E.F., and the editor's note. https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA499579 [^22]: *Oklahoma v. Texas*, 265 U.S. 493 (1924), decree on the Red River boundary, providing that property be "released from the existing receivership." https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/265/493/ [^23]: Arnold H. Taylor, *American Diplomacy and the Narcotics Traffic, 1900-1939* (Durham: Duke University Press, 1969), pp. 312-313 and notes 38 to 43 (Wright's approaches to seven or eight persons, the Bureau of Social Hygiene pledge and the additional 100,000 francs, the staff, the travel dates, the State Department memoranda of December 1925). https://archive.org/details/americandiplomac02tayl [^24]: Edward Terry and Mabel Pellens, *The Opium Problem* (Bureau of Social Hygiene, 1928), pp. 720-721, the League's listing of the commission. https://archive.org/details/opiumproblem00terr [^25]: Elizabeth P. MacCallum, *Twenty Years of Persian Opium (1908-1928)* (Foreign Policy Association, Opium Research Committee, March 1928), p. 29 (membership, departure from Geneva on March 11, 1926, return to Marseilles on June 16, seventy-five days in Persia). https://archive.org/details/20yearsofpersian00macc [^26]: League of Nations, Commission of Enquiry into the Production of Opium in Persia, *Report to the Council*, C.580.M.219.1926.XI (Geneva, 1926), as cited in Taylor, *American Diplomacy and the Narcotics Traffic*, p. 313, note 43, and in MacCallum, *Twenty Years of Persian Opium*, pp. 29-30. [^27]: MacCallum, *Twenty Years of Persian Opium*, Annex III, pp. 44-45, extract from the Report of the League Commission of Enquiry into the Production of Opium in Persia, December 1926, "Conclusions and Recommendations," and the letter of the Persian Prime Minister to the President of the Commission dated June 1, 1926. https://archive.org/details/20yearsofpersian00macc [^28]: MacCallum, *Twenty Years of Persian Opium*, Annex II, pp. 40-43, "Chairman's Personal Summary of Findings of League Commission of Enquiry," extract from a letter to the Secretary-General signed by Frederic A. Delano. https://archive.org/details/20yearsofpersian00macc [^29]: MacCallum, *Twenty Years of Persian Opium*, pp. 29-31, quoting the Commission's *Report*, p. 41 (the three-year preparatory period, annual reductions of ten per cent, and the numbered suggestions on taxation, licensing and marking of opium). https://archive.org/details/20yearsofpersian00macc [^30]: *The United States Daily*, July 6, 1927, vol. 2, no. 105, the letter of Frederic A. Delano to the League of Nations on the Persian commission's findings (three years of preparation; annual reduction of 10 per cent). https://archive.org/details/sim_united-states-daily_1927-07-06_2_105 [^31]: Arnold H. Taylor, *American Diplomacy and the Narcotics Traffic, 1900-1939* (Durham: Duke University Press, 1969), pp. 313-314 and notes 44 to 47 (substance of the report; no loan recommendation; Persian reservations; Colonel MacCormack before the Council in March 1927 and the Fifth Committee in September). https://archive.org/details/americandiplomac02tayl [^32]: MacCallum, *Twenty Years of Persian Opium*, pp. 31-32 (the Persian Government's reservations, the three-year experiment, the import certificate proposal and the monopoly bill). https://archive.org/details/20yearsofpersian00macc [^33]: MacCallum, *Twenty Years of Persian Opium*, pp. 33-34 (Delano's address to the Fifth Committee of the Assembly in September 1927; the Assembly resolution thanking the members of the Commission). https://archive.org/details/20yearsofpersian00macc [^34]: Westbrook Pegler, column distributed by King Features Syndicate, *Hope Star* (Hope, Arkansas), December 5, 1945. https://archive.org/details/hope-star-1945-12-05 [^35]: Russell Sage Foundation, *Plan of New York and Its Environs*, the meeting of May 10, 1922, committee roster. https://archive.org/details/planofnewyorkits00russ [^36]: John M. Glenn, Lilian Brandt and F. Emerson Andrews, *Russell Sage Foundation, 1907-1946*, vol. 2 (1947), the 1922 regional plan committee, Norton's death in March 1923 and Delano's succession, the 1929 presentation, and the November 1939 decision not to serve longer. https://archive.org/details/russellsagefound02john [^37]: *Planning*, May 1953 (American Society of Planning Officials), vol. 19, no. 5, obituary of Frederic A. Delano (died March 28, aged 89; chairman of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission 1924 to 1942; "was appointed Chairman of the National Planning Board in 1934 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his nephew"; "various changes of names until its final dissolution in 1943"; overseer of Harvard University; trustee of the University of Chicago). https://archive.org/details/sim_planning_1953-05_19_5 [^38]: Edward M. Bassett, *Zoning Practice in the New York Region* (Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs, 1925), committee roster. https://archive.org/details/zoningpracticein00bass_0 [^39]: Committee on the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs, *The Graphic Regional Plan* (1929), roster and letter of presentation, pp. [9]-[11]. https://archive.org/details/graphicregionalp0000unse [^40]: *Engineering News-Record*, June 6, 1929, vol. 102, no. 23, account of the presentation of the Regional Plan on the evening of May 27, 1929 (436 cities, villages and towns). https://archive.org/details/sim_enr_1929-06-06_102_23 [^41]: *Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects*, August 18, 1929, vol. 36, no. 18. https://archive.org/details/sim_riba-journal_1929-08-18_36_18 [^42]: President's Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership, *Planning for Residential Districts* (1932), committee roster for city planning and zoning. https://archive.org/details/planningforresid00presrich [^43]: *Railway Age*, July 29, 1933, vol. 95, no. 5, the planning board announced by Harold L. Ickes and its membership. https://archive.org/details/sim_railway-age_1933-07-29_95_5 [^44]: National Archives, *Guide to the Records of Federal Agencies*, Record Group 187, Records of the National Resources Planning Board, administrative history (187.1) and 187.3.2, "Records of Chairman Frederic A. Delano." https://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/187.html [^45]: National Conference on Planning, *New Horizons in Planning* (proceedings of the National Planning Conference, 1937), listing "Frederic A. Delano, Vice-Chairman, National Resources Committee." https://archive.org/details/newhorizonsinpla00natirich [^46]: *United States News*, April 2, 1943, special issue, profile of Delano ("At 79, Mr. Delano") and reference to the "cradle-to-grave" plan. https://archive.org/details/sim_u-s-news-weekly-special-issues_1943-04-02_14_14 [^47]: *Congressional Record*, vol. 89 (78th Congress, 1st session), House, May 1943, p. 4469, remarks of Representative Noah M. Mason of Illinois and the exchange with Representative August H. Andresen of Minnesota on the "cradle-to-grave" report. https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_may-14-june-14-1943_89 [^48]: *Congressional Record*, vol. 89, Senate, May 27, 1943, pp. 4923-4926, remarks of Senator Robert A. Taft on the appropriation for the National Resources Planning Board, including Delano's letter to Taft of May 20, 1943 (p. 4924). https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_may-14-june-14-1943_89 [^49]: *Congressional Record*, vol. 89, Senate, May 27, 1943, p. 4946, remarks of Senator Kenneth McKellar and the letter of February 22, 1943 from the Office of the Chief of Transportation, Services of Supply, War Department, to Frederic A. Delano. https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_may-14-june-14-1943_89 [^50]: *Congressional Record*, vol. 89, Senate, May 27, 1943, p. 4954, Senator Charles L. McNary reading Delano's letter of May 26, 1943, and Senator Taft's reply. https://archive.org/details/sim_congressional-record-proceedings-and-debates_may-14-june-14-1943_89 [^51]: Act of June 26, 1943, ch. 145, 57 Stat. 169, 170, "Making appropriations for the Executive Office and sundry independent executive bureaus, boards, commissions, and offices, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1944" (National Resources Planning Board paragraph). https://archive.org/details/us-stat [^52]: Smithsonian Institution, *Annual Report of the Board of Regents* for the fiscal year 1936 (reappointment by joint resolution approved August 7, 1935; report of the Executive Committee presented by Delano). https://archive.org/details/annual-report-board-of-regents-smithsonian_1936 [^53]: Smithsonian Institution, *Annual Report of the Board of Regents* for the fiscal year 1942 (reappointment by joint resolution approved August 21, 1941; Executive Committee: Delano, Bush, Cannon). https://archive.org/details/annual-report-board-of-regents-smithsonian_1942 [^54]: Carnegie Institution of Washington, *Year Book No. 44* (1944-1945), board of trustees officers (Root as vice chairman; Delano as secretary). https://archive.org/details/yearbookcarne44194445carn [^55]: Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland, *Stilwell's Mission to China* (Washington: Office of the Chief of Military History, 1953), pp. 19 and 26 (China Defense Supplies as the principal Chinese purchasing and supply agency; detailed requisitions against the thirty division program from May 1941). https://archive.org/details/CMHPub9-1 [^56]: U.S. Army Center of Military History, *The Flying Tigers: Chennault's American Volunteer Group in China* (Washington: Government Printing Office), the account of CAMCO and China Defense Supplies. https://archive.org/details/TheFlyingTigers [^57]: Sterling Seagrave, *The Soong Dynasty* (New York: Harper and Row, 1985), the account of China Defense Supplies. https://archive.org/details/soongdynasty0000seag_t0v1 [^58]: Daniel Ford, *Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942* (Washington: Smithsonian Books, 2007), the account of the founding of China Defense Supplies. https://archive.org/details/flyingtigersclai0000ford [^59]: John Pomfret, *The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present* (New York: Henry Holt, 2016), the account of the founding of China Defense Supplies. https://archive.org/details/beautifulcountry0000pomf [^60]: *American Angels: Forming the Lafayette Escadrille, RAF Eagles, and Flying Tigers* (Air University, 2000), the account of China Defense Supplies, note 49. https://archive.org/details/DTIC_ADA384931 --- *The Info Web has an MCP server for agents at https://theinfoweb.org/mcp (streamable HTTP, no auth): search by meaning, exact text, source or date, and follow typed, footnoted connections. 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