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Dickinson State University (DSU), located on the edge of the North Dakota Badlands, strives to be a premier university in the Upper Great Plains. DSU is also the physical home of the Theodore Roosevelt Center.
To celebrate the centennial year of Theodore Roosevelt’s birth in 1958, a Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Commission was created by the United States House of Representatives. The Commission worked with the Theodore Roosevelt Association to coordinate activities to commemorate the anniversary of Roosevelt’s life. In observation of the centennial, Dickinson State University, then Dickinson State Teacher’s College, organized a symposium to honor Roosevelt’s memory and to give recognition to the role North Dakota played in his life. The symposium theme was Responsible Citizenship, and the keynote speakers included Senator John F. Kennedy, Howard K. Beale, Hermann H. Hagedorn, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton, and Theodore Roosevelt McKeldin.
The 1958 Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Symposium collection housed at DSU was digitized and cataloged by TR Center staff and an intern working on-site. The collection includes manuscripts, letters, pictures, newspaper articles, magazine clippings, comics, mementos, speeches and books about the image, life and legacy of Theodore Roosevelt. Highlights in the collection are a copy of a handwritten autobiography and other manuscripts authored by Theodore Roosevelt. Some of the latter are titled “The Home Ranch,” “Frontier Types,” “Sheriff’s Work on a Ranch,” and “The Ranchman’s Rifle on the Crag and Prairie.” The collection includes extensive documentation on the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Symposium hosted by Dickinson State Teacher’s College along with photographs and articles about Roosevelt and his life.
For full details on the 1958 Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Symposium collection, please see the Finding Aid.
See below to view documents from this collection in the Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library.
Performance of “La quasina” by Beverly Everett on piano. The original sheet music was composed by J. E. Randolph and dedicated to Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. The sheet music was published in 1898 by George L. Spaulding of New York, New York and Howard and Co. of London, England.
Recorded at Makoche Recording Studios in Bismarck, North Dakota, with partial funding from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
Performance of “Our Teddy” by Beverly Everett on piano. The original sheet music was published in 1905 by Oscar Schmoll.
Recorded at Makoche Recording Studios in Bismarck, North Dakota, with partial funding from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
Performance of “Strenuous life” by Beverly Everett on piano. The original sheet music was composed by William J. Short and is based on Theodore Roosevelt’s speech of the same name which was given in Chicago, Illinois in 1899. The sheet music was published in 1902 by C. H. Persons Music House of Maynard, Massachusetts.
Recorded at Makoche Recording Studios in Bismarck, North Dakota, with partial funding from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
Performance of “Teddy’s nig” by Beth Hurt, soprano, and Beverly Everett, piano. The song satirizes Theodore Roosevelt’s relationship with native Africans after his 1909-1910 safari and their introduction to western culture. The original sheet music was “dedicated with due apologies to the African jungle folks” by composer Ethelberta Twombly and published in 1910 by Vinton Music Publishing Co. of Boston, Massachusetts.
Recorded at Makoche Recording Studios in Bismarck, North Dakota, with partial funding from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
Performance of “The peacemaker march” by Beverly Everett on piano. The song commemorates Theodore Roosevelt’s involvement in the peace talks that ended the Russo-Japanese War in September 1905. Roosevelt won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. The original sheet music was composed by Frank Sturtevant and published in 1905 by the Conservatory Publican Society of New York.
Recorded at Makoche Recording Studios in Bismarck, North Dakota, with partial funding from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
Performance of “We Stand at Armageddon” by Beth Hurt, soprano, and Beverly Everett on piano. The original sheet music was composed by E. H. Purcell and published by Aubrey Stauffer Co. Music Publishers of Chicago, Illinois.
Recorded at Makoche Recording Studios in Bismarck, North Dakota, with partial funding from the North Dakota Council on the Arts.
Invitation to the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Symposium of lectures at Dickinson State Teachers College.
1958
President Roosevelt and Senator Fairbanks relaxing in rocking chairs.
1904
Invitation to a public meeting to discuss the proposed Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Symposium.
1957-09-28
Careful consideration will be given to the request for President Eisenhower to be a Theodore Roosevelt centennial speaker in the spring or summer of 1958 in Dickinson, North Dakota.
1957-11-23
Notes related to the brochure to be prepared for the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Symposium, as well as a list of invitees to a coffee party.
1957-1958
Unknown alphabetical list, perhaps of potential sponsors for the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Symposium. Two copies are included, both with handwritten edits.
1957-1958
Business card for Leslie C. Stratton, director of the Theodore Roosevelt Association.
Unknown
Denny Griswold discusses public relations efforts including “Case Study No. 694,” the Theodore Roosevelt Association’s promotion of the centennial celebrations of Theodore Roosevelt’s birth.
1958-12-29
Percy C. Spencer, chairman of the board for the Sinclair Oil Corporation, encloses an advertisement honoring the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Commission which will appear in a series of Sinclair public service messages.
1958-06-09
Public service advertisement promoting the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Commission and the Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park.
1958