Pictured above is First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt during her first official visit to Puerto Rico in March 1934. Mrs. Roosevelt (fourth from the left) visited the island as part of a tour that took her through the U.S. Virgin Islands, Cuba and the Dominican Republic . The purpose of that trip, which she took on behalf of her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was to evaluate the impact of the Great Depression on the residents of this region and to investigate labor conditions here.

The first lady left Washington , D.C. by train to Florida , departing to Cuba from Miami via an American Airways Clipper Ship on March 6, according to the Franklin Roosevelt Library and Museum. After visiting the Virgin Islands, she reached Puerto Rico on the third day of her Caribbean tour. Upon her arrival, Mrs. Roosevelt was greeted by the San Juan Girl Scouts and made a few stops, which included the Psychiatric Hospital in Río Piedras.

This picture records Mrs. Roosevelt's visit to the Occupational Therapy Department at the Psychiatric Hospital. Mrs. Roosevelt is receiving a gift crafted by the hospital's patients with local fibers. Looking on is Mary P. Díaz de Ledesma (second from the left) who explains to Mrs. Roosevelt the sort of native material that was used to craft the gift. Díaz de Ledesma was the first occupational therapist with a professional degree to practice on the island.

Mrs. Roosevelt returned to the United States on March 16, 1934, where she was greetedby Miami Mayor E.G. Sewell, according to the Roosevelt Library. She returned to the White House the following day.

At that time, Mrs. Roosevelt, wrote a column for Women's Home Companion magazine.

In her October 1934 column, titled “Our Island Possessions,” Mrs. Roosevelt detailed the precarious conditions in which Boricuas lived at that time and the impact of the Depression on them. But she was struck by the role Puerto Rican women played in the labor force, describing the needlework they did at their homes as beautiful, but underpaid.

The First Lady visited Puerto Rico two more times. A second official trip, in which she visited American troops in the region, brought her back to the island 10 years later (see “Metro Cuando y Donde” in Metro's June/July 2008 issue). She visited the island again in September 1959, but this time as a private individual on vacation. Already widowed and out of the White House, Mrs. Roosevelt “did nothing except swim, sit in the sun and read."

I slept more than I have slept in years,” she wrote in her “My Day” column on Sept. 9, 1959. She passed away in New York on Nov. 7, 1962.

—Valerie López

Did you rub elbows with celebrities at some point? Do you have pictures to prove it? We would love to see them! Send your pics and stories to vlopez@metrosanjuan.com.