Establishment of the Frances Perkins National Monument, 103617-103624 [2024-30485]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 244 (Thursday, December 19, 2024)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 103617-103624]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-30485]




                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 244 / Thursday, December 19, 2024 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 103617]]

                Proclamation 10873 of December 16, 2024

                
Establishment of the Frances Perkins National 
                Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Few Americans have had deeper influence in shaping 
                labor and social policy in the United States than 
                Frances Perkins. Perkins became the first woman to 
                serve as a Cabinet Secretary when President Franklin 
                Delano Roosevelt appointed her as the Secretary of 
                Labor in 1933. During the subsequent 12 years, 
                Secretary Perkins played a pivotal role in constructing 
                the New Deal and helping to guide the country out of 
                the Great Depression by designing and leading the 
                implementation of sweeping labor and economic reforms 
                that have made life better for generations of 
                Americans. The longest serving Secretary of Labor in 
                United States history, Secretary Perkins was the 
                architect of many programs and standards--including a 
                minimum wage, overtime pay, unemployment insurance, and 
                prohibitions on child labor--that have endured as the 
                backbone of Federal support for workers and families 
                and continue to benefit millions of Americans today. 
                Secretary Perkins chaired President Roosevelt's effort 
                to investigate the benefits of social insurance and 
                then worked to achieve passage of the Social Security 
                Act, which became one of the most successful programs 
                in the United States to prevent poverty among older 
                adults. When the United States and other nations 
                initially failed to face the horrors of the Holocaust, 
                Secretary Perkins demonstrated leadership on behalf of 
                immigrants and refugees by actively working to bring 
                Jewish children and adults from Europe to the United 
                States to ensure their safety.

                The Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, Maine, played a 
                pivotal role in Frances Perkins' life and supported her 
                work to deliver lasting protection and benefits to 
                American workers and families. The rural setting of the 
                Perkins Homestead on the Damariscotta River was the 
                place she felt most at home. She spent her childhood 
                summers there and returned frequently for respite 
                throughout her career. Continuously owned by her family 
                for over 260 years, the Perkins Homestead remains much 
                as it was during Secretary Perkins' lifetime, including 
                the buildings, structures, gardens, and paths where she 
                spent substantial time throughout her life. The core 
                area contains historic structures including a brick 
                house, an attached barn, a gravel driveway, a garden, 
                and portions of a stone wall. The surrounding landscape 
                of the Perkins Homestead contains additional portions 
                of the stone wall, an ice pond, walking trails, a 
                family cemetery, foundations of the 18th and 19th 
                century Perkins Homestead buildings, and remnants of a 
                pre-Revolutionary era garrison. Visitors to the Perkins 
                Homestead today can wander through these places where 
                Perkins returned time and again during her Government 
                service. They can view the stone wall where she sat 
                listening to the radio on September 1, 1939, when it 
                was reported that the Germans invaded Poland, prompting 
                her to rush back to Washington, DC, to assist the 
                President. Preserving the core area of the Perkins 
                Homestead and its associated historic objects will 
                ensure that current and future generations have the 
                opportunity to learn about Secretary Perkins' 
                foundational contributions to the Nation's social and 
                labor policy through the place that helped shape her as 
                a person and support her throughout her extraordinary 
                career.

                Frances Perkins was born in Boston as Fannie Coralie 
                Perkins in 1880. At the age of 25, she changed her name 
                to Frances Perkins, which she

[[Page 103618]]

                used for the rest of her life, even after marriage. She 
                graduated in 1902 from Mount Holyoke College in 
                Massachusetts, where she credited a class trip to a 
                nearby mill with inspiring her early interest in 
                improving working conditions for women and children.

                After college, Frances Perkins worked with social 
                service organizations in Chicago and Philadelphia, 
                including settlement houses for poor and unemployed 
                people and an organization to support and protect 
                immigrant and Black women and girls from labor and 
                sexual exploitation they faced upon arrival in these 
                cities looking for work. These experiences deepened her 
                resolve to help reduce poverty and support the working 
                poor.

                In 1911, while employed at the New York City Consumers' 
                League, Frances Perkins heard the sirens of fire 
                engines racing to put out flames that had engulfed the 
                nearby Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Running to the site 
                of the fire, she witnessed the horrific scene of 
                workers, mostly young women, jumping to their deaths 
                after being locked in the factory. In total, 146 people 
                died in the fire--including many immigrant workers. 
                Perkins later cited that tragic day as the impetus for 
                policies that would become central to the New Deal.

                Perkins' subsequent work at the New York Factory 
                Investigating Commission, where she investigated and 
                advocated for worker health and safety reforms, led to 
                33 new State laws that improved worker safety, 
                workplace sanitation, and working conditions; provided 
                workers' compensation; and placed limits on child 
                labor. These were some of the first workplace health 
                and safety standards in the Nation, and they became 
                models that other States and the Federal Government 
                adopted.

                In 1919, Perkins was named to the New York State 
                Industrial Commission, making her the first woman 
                appointed to serve in a New York State government 
                administration. In 1929, newly elected Governor 
                Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked Perkins to become the 
                State's Industrial Commissioner and oversee the labor 
                department. As the United States careened toward the 
                Great Depression, Perkins used her position to shine a 
                national spotlight on rising unemployment while also 
                helping workers in New York and elsewhere by connecting 
                them to jobs through a State employment service and 
                inviting surrounding States to participate in an 
                unemployment insurance system. Her early warnings 
                regarding the depth of the Nation's economic problems 
                and her work to develop solutions established Perkins 
                as a national leader in the 20th century employment and 
                labor reform movements.

                When President Roosevelt formally asked Perkins to join 
                his Cabinet as Secretary of Labor, she responded by 
                saying that if she accepted the position, she intended 
                to execute an ambitious plan of action that included 
                establishing maximum hours and minimum wages, ending 
                child labor, developing unemployment relief through 
                public works, providing unemployment insurance, and 
                creating an old-age pension and a national health 
                insurance program. After detailing her plan, she asked 
                if President Roosevelt was sure he wanted this list of 
                policies put in place, explaining that, ``you won't 
                want me for Secretary of Labor if you don't want those 
                things done.'' President Roosevelt responded that he 
                would back her; he had promised the American people 
                that he would improve their lives, and he intended to 
                keep his promise.

                At a time when few women were in leadership positions 
                and just 13 years after the 19th Amendment granted 
                women the right to vote, Frances Perkins became 
                Secretary of Labor. During an unprecedented 12 years in 
                the position--from 1933 to 1945--Secretary Perkins 
                achieved hard-fought social and economic reforms, often 
                over vocal opposition and personal attacks from 
                critics. She summarized her work in a five-page letter 
                to President Roosevelt, describing the reforms as ``a 
                turning point in our national life--a turning from 
                careless neglect of human values and toward an order . 
                . . of mutual and practical benevolence within a free 
                competitive industrial economy.'' The list of 
                accomplishments detailed in her letter encompasses many 
                programs and laws that continue to undergird the 
                Nation's economy and social

[[Page 103619]]

                safety net, including establishing Social Security and 
                contributing to the development of the Fair Labor 
                Standards Act and the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts 
                Act. She also helped create millions of jobs across the 
                country through the novel Civilian Conservation Corps 
                and Public Works Administration.

                As Secretary of Labor, Perkins often supported the 
                rights of workers to organize unions and to negotiate 
                with employers through collective action, laying the 
                foundation for the rebirth of American labor--including 
                through helping write recovery legislation that 
                provided a right to collective bargaining and laid the 
                groundwork for the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 
                (also known as the Wagner Act). She used her post not 
                only to advance labor protections in national policy, 
                but also to call personally for workers' fair treatment 
                and access to the halls of power. She persuaded 
                President Roosevelt not to deploy Federal troops to 
                quell the 1934 San Francisco General Strike, and 
                instead encouraged the parties to settle their 
                differences, which was accomplished within a week, and 
                she frequently advised President Roosevelt to help 
                resolve contentious strikes for the benefit of workers.

                At the close of her time at the Department of Labor, 
                Perkins had accomplished nearly all of the items in the 
                ambitious plan she laid out for President Roosevelt 
                when he asked her to serve, but she lamented the one 
                exception: health care benefits for American workers. 
                Historians have also noted that, because of deep racial 
                inequities and injustices of the time--including 
                segregation--the benefits of the New Deal were not 
                available to all Americans initially.

                When her time as Secretary of Labor concluded, Perkins 
                continued in public service as President Harry Truman's 
                appointee to the United States Civil Service 
                Commission, a post she held from 1945 until 1953. She 
                then became a lecturer at the New York State School of 
                Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, a 
                role she held until her death in 1965.

                When Secretary Perkins died, the Secretary of Labor at 
                the time, W. Willard Wirtz, recognized her legacy as 
                central to the New Deal, stating that ``every man and 
                woman in America who works at a living wage, under safe 
                conditions, for reasonable hours, or who is protected 
                by unemployment insurance or social security is her 
                debtor.'' The final resting place of Secretary Perkins 
                is near her daughter, husband, sister, parents, and 
                grandparents in the Glidden Cemetery, located a half 
                mile north of the Perkins Homestead in Newcastle, 
                Maine.

                Throughout Perkins' life and career, the Perkins 
                Homestead served as a place of rejuvenation and 
                reflection, including during her time as Secretary of 
                Labor. Throughout her working life, she continued the 
                family tradition of summer visits to Maine, often 
                living there with her daughter from August into 
                September. Perkins and her sister became joint owners 
                of the property in 1927 and it stayed within the family 
                until 2020. Perkins wrote about how the woods 
                surrounding the brick house and the shoreline at the 
                Perkins Homestead's edge restored and comforted her, 
                and how the brick house provided a place for her to 
                relax and to recover from her work as Secretary of 
                Labor.

                The Perkins Homestead, originally over 200 acres, was 
                settled by Perkins' great-great grandfather in the 
                early 1700s. A mid-18th century garrison existed on the 
                property that was in use for 3 years during the French 
                and Indian War.

                The core area, on the west end of the Perkins 
                Homestead, has a brick house built by the Perkins 
                family in 1837 along with a connected barn. The two-
                story home is constructed of bricks manufactured on 
                site at the family brickyard. The east end of the 
                Perkins Homestead borders the Damariscotta River and 
                has a family cemetery, foundations of the 18th and 19th 
                century Perkins Homestead buildings, the remains of the 
                brick kilns, wharves, and a clay pit from the 19th 
                century brickyard, as well

[[Page 103620]]

                as the remains of the garrison. Agricultural fields, 
                pastures, woodland, and planted trees connect the two 
                sides of the Perkins Homestead.

                The National Park Service first documented the Perkins 
                Homestead through the Historic American Buildings 
                Survey in 1960, while Secretary Perkins still occupied 
                the home. In 2009, the National Park Service listed the 
                Brick House Historic District on the National Register 
                of Historic Places; the Brick House Historic District 
                included the brick house, adjacent structures, and the 
                wooded and agricultural lands extending to the 
                shoreline of the Damariscotta River. In 2014, the 
                Secretary of the Interior designated this same 57 acres 
                as the Perkins Homestead National Historic Landmark, 
                recognizing the property's historic importance and 
                nationally significant association with Frances 
                Perkins.

                The Perkins Homestead contains several objects that 
                reflect Secretary Perkins' lifelong commitment to 
                supporting and protecting American workers. Hanging 
                above a doorway in the brick house is a custom ``No 
                Smoking'' sign that reflects the lasting influence the 
                Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire had on Perkins. It 
                reads: ``Please Do Not SMOKE In Any Part of This 
                Building. DANGEROUS. F. Perkins.'' The brick house also 
                includes Secretary Perkins' Award for Distinguished 
                Service, which the Department of Labor presented to her 
                on March 4, 1963, on the occasion of the Department's 
                50th anniversary. The Award citation reads: ``For her 
                courage in entering an arena previously considered a 
                masculine domain; for her strength in guiding the 
                Department through a dozen years of domestic stress and 
                international travail; for her spirit in waging the 
                good fight for good objectives; and finally, for 
                herself.''

                Conserving the Perkins Homestead will ensure that the 
                family home and surrounding landscape that were a 
                constant source of support for Secretary Perkins will 
                remain protected and accessible in perpetuity for the 
                benefit of all people to learn about her life, her 
                unparalleled contributions to labor and social policy 
                that would eventually benefit generations of Americans, 
                and core principles at the heart of the New Deal that 
                she championed: economic security and dignity for 
                workers.

                WHEREAS, section 320301 of title 54, United States Code 
                (the ``Antiquities Act''), authorizes the President, in 
                the President's discretion, to declare by public 
                proclamation historic landmarks, historic and 
                prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic 
                or scientific interest that are situated on land owned 
                or controlled by the Federal Government to be national 
                monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of 
                land, the limits of which shall be confined to the 
                smallest area compatible with the proper care and 
                management of the objects to be protected; and

                WHEREAS, the Perkins Homestead was designated a 
                National Historic Landmark on August 25, 2014, 
                establishing its national significance as the ancestral 
                home and lifelong summer residence of Frances Perkins, 
                the first woman to serve as a Cabinet Secretary and one 
                of our Nation's most influential and effective public 
                servants whose legacy includes the historic New Deal; 
                and

                WHEREAS, the Frances Perkins Center has been managing 
                and preserving the approximately 57-acre Perkins 
                Homestead, including the objects identified above and 
                additional archives and collections illustrating the 
                historic value of this site, and has expressed support 
                for inclusion of the Perkins Homestead in the National 
                Park System; and

                WHEREAS, the Frances Perkins Center has donated to the 
                Federal Government for the purpose of establishing a 
                unit of the National Park System fee interest in the 
                core area comprising approximately 2.3 acres of land in 
                Newcastle, Maine, which includes several historic 
                objects associated with the Perkins Homestead and 
                Perkins' life located on this site, including the brick 
                house, the connected barn, and portions of the stone 
                wall; and

                WHEREAS, in support of the establishment of a national 
                monument to be administered by the National Park 
                Service, the Frances Perkins Center

[[Page 103621]]

                has also indicated its intent to develop a partnership 
                with the National Park Service to help manage, oversee, 
                interpret, maintain, and protect the Perkins Homestead 
                (including the core area) and the historic objects it 
                contains as appropriate; and

                WHEREAS, the Frances Perkins Center has indicated an 
                interest in donating a majority of the remaining 
                approximately 54.7 acres of the 57-acre Perkins 
                Homestead to the Federal Government in the future; and

                WHEREAS, the designation of a national monument to be 
                administered by the National Park Service would 
                recognize the historic significance of Frances Perkins 
                and her role in the New Deal, particularly her 
                contributions to social welfare, safe working 
                conditions, and protection of workers' health and well-
                being, and would provide a national platform for 
                preserving and interpreting this important history; and

                WHEREAS, I find that all the objects identified above, 
                and objects of the type identified above within the 
                area described herein, are objects of historic interest 
                in need of protection under section 320301 of title 54, 
                United States Code, regardless of whether they are 
                expressly identified as objects of historic interest in 
                the text of this proclamation; and

                WHEREAS, I find that the boundaries of the monument 
                reserved by this proclamation represent the smallest 
                area compatible with the proper care and management of 
                the objects of historic interest identified above, as 
                required by the Antiquities Act; and

                WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to preserve and 
                protect the objects of historic interest associated 
                with the Perkins Homestead in Maine;

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of 
                the United States of America, by the authority vested 
                in me by section 320301 of title 54, United States 
                Code, hereby proclaim the objects identified above that 
                are situated on lands and interests in lands owned or 
                controlled by the Federal Government to be part of the 
                Frances Perkins National Monument (monument) and, for 
                the purpose of protecting those objects, reserve as 
                part thereof all lands and interests in lands owned or 
                controlled by the Government of the United States 
                within the boundaries described on the accompanying 
                map, which is attached to and forms a part of this 
                proclamation. The monument's boundaries are coextensive 
                with the Perkins Homestead National Historic Landmark 
                boundaries, and the reserved Federal lands and 
                interests in lands within the monument's boundaries 
                comprise approximately 2.3 acres.

                All Federal lands and interests in lands within the 
                boundaries of the monument are hereby appropriated and 
                withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection, 
                sale, leasing, or other disposition under the public 
                land laws, including withdrawal from location, entry, 
                and patent under the mining laws, and from disposition 
                under all laws relating to mineral and geothermal 
                leasing.

                The establishment of the monument is subject to valid 
                existing rights. Specifically, the Frances Perkins 
                Center retains reserved rights to occupy and use the 
                premises; complete preservation, maintenance, and 
                renovation work; and store and maintain artifacts 
                currently located in the brick house. These reserved 
                rights shall expire not later than 25 years after the 
                date of this proclamation.

                If the Federal Government acquires any lands or 
                interests in lands not owned or controlled by the 
                Federal Government within the boundaries described on 
                the accompanying map, such lands and interests in lands 
                shall be reserved as part of the monument, and objects 
                of the type identified above that are situated upon 
                those lands and interests in lands shall be part of the 
                monument, upon acquisition of ownership or control by 
                the Federal Government.

                The Secretary of the Interior shall manage the monument 
                through the National Park Service, pursuant to 
                applicable legal authorities and consistent

[[Page 103622]]

                with the purposes and provisions of this proclamation. 
                For the purpose of preserving, interpreting, and 
                enhancing the public understanding and appreciation of 
                the monument, the Secretary of the Interior, through 
                the National Park Service, shall prepare a management 
                plan for the monument. The management plan shall ensure 
                that the monument fulfills the following purposes for 
                the benefit of present and future generations: (1) to 
                preserve the historic objects and other resources 
                within the boundaries of the monument, and (2) to 
                interpret in its entirety the story of Frances Perkins 
                and the history of the New Deal, including the impact 
                Perkins had as the first woman Cabinet Secretary; the 
                complexities of Perkins as an individual and of her 
                ideas, perspectives, and views; and her role in 
                advancing hallmark labor, economic, and social reform 
                within the historical and political context of the 
                early-to-mid 20th century.

                The National Park Service shall consult with 
                appropriate Federal, State, and local agencies; local 
                communities; nongovernmental organizations; and the 
                general public in the region of the monument--including 
                the Frances Perkins Center and the Damariscotta River 
                Association--in developing the management plan for the 
                monument, which shall include resource management, 
                interpretation and education, visitor access, and 
                services at the monument. The National Park Service 
                shall also consult on all aspects of the management 
                plan with the Penobscot Nation and other Wabanaki 
                Peoples, whose ancestral lands include areas in Maine 
                near the monument.

                The National Park Service is directed, as appropriate, 
                to use applicable authorities to seek to enter into 
                agreements with other entities, including the Frances 
                Perkins Center, to address common interests and promote 
                management efficiencies, including the provision of 
                visitor services, interpretation and education, 
                establishment and care of museum collections, and 
                preservation of historic objects.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke 
                any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; 
                however, the monument shall be the dominant 
                reservation.

                Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not 
                to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature 
                of the monument and not to locate or settle upon any of 
                the lands thereof.

                If any provision of this proclamation, including its 
                application to a particular parcel of land, is held to 
                be invalid, the remainder of this proclamation and its 
                application to other parcels of land shall not be 
                affected thereby.

[[Page 103623]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                sixteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                ninth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

Billing code 3395-F4-P



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[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TD19DE24.026


[FR Doc. 2024-30485
Filed 12-18-24; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4310-10-C