Your TR Source
Fritz R. Gordner was introduced to presidential collecting as a child. Fritz and a friend went down to Indianapolis campaign headquarters and passed out buttons for Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. When they got home, they lined all of the buttons up on the rug. That urge to collect has grown into a Theodore Roosevelt collection that includes hundreds of postcards, campaign buttons, banners, and assorted items including a Toby jug, and a Roosevelt bank.
To view items from the collection, please see below.
For more information on Fritz’s collection, please click here to read the full transcript of an interview conducted by Pamela Pierce, digital library coordinator, with him.
“H. E. V.” sends a postcard to Iva Harshbarger of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. The front of the card features the Cracker Jack Bears flying in an airbus over the Cracker Jack building. Number thirteen in a series of sixteen cards that were sent free to anyone who mailed in ten sides from Cracker Jack or ten cents in “silver or stamps.”
1907
A postcard featuring an illustration of Theodore Roosevelt holding a gun and looking up at two bears in a tree. The bears have speech bubbles asking Roosevelt not to shoot them because they “met at the White House in Washington” and they are the “bears with Cracker Jack.” Number fifteen in a series of sixteen cards that were sent free to anyone who mailed in ten sides from Cracker Jack boxes or ten cents in “silver or stamps.”
1907
This postcard features a quote by Theodore Roosevelt and an illustration of a cat on a tree branch.
1910
The quote on this postcards reads: “The power of accepting individual responsibility and yet of acting in conjunction with others, courage and resolution-these are the qualities which mark a masterful people.”
1910
The Theodore Roosevelt quote on this postcards reads: “Sentimentality is the most broken reed upon which righteousness can lean.”
1910
The Theodore Roosevelt quote on this postcard reads: “Moreover, and above all, let us remember that words count only when they give expression to deeds.”
1910
The Theodore Roosevelt quote on this postcard reads: “The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.”
1910
The Theodore Roosevelt quote on this postcard reads: “We believe that our ideals should be high, but not so high as to make it impossible measurably to realize them.”
1910
The Theodore Roosevelt quote on this postcard reads: “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
1910
The Theodore Roosevelt quote on this postcard reads: “There is need of a sound body and even more need of a sound mind. But above mind and above body stands character.”
1910
The Theodore Roosevelt quote on this postcard reads: “True liberty shows itself to best advantage in protecting the rights of others.”
1910
Commander Peary leans on the deck of the SS Roosevelt. Peary is wearing a fur trimmed coat, gloves, and pants. The edges of the postcard are decorated with illustrations of Arctic scenes. The back of the postcard features a description of the photograph, explaining that Peary has just left Upernavik in Greenland and is looking into the “land of the unknown.” Peary was an arctic explorer and claimed he and his expedition crew were the first to reach the geographic North Pole on April 8, 1909. This claim is still controversial.
1909
President Roosevelt shakes hands with Commander Peary before Peary sets sail from Oyster Bay, New York, for his Arctic expedition in July 1908. The edges of the postcard are decorated with illustrations of Arctic scenes. The description printed on the back of the postcard says Peary successfully completed his “dash for the pole” on April 8, 1909. Frederick A. Cook announced on September 1, 1909, that he had reached the North Pole on April 21, 1908.
1909
A crowd of people on the deck of the SS Roosevelt. A drawing of the ship itself is inset in the top left corner. The description printed on the back of the card tells of Peary’s exploration of the Arctic Ocean and “dash” for the North Pole, which involved “repeated efforts by daring men and the sacrifice of hundreds of lives in the cause of science.”
1909
The SS Roosevelt as it left Oyster Bay, New York, for Commander Peary’s Arctic expedition. The edges of the postcard are decorated with illustrations of Arctic scenes. The description printed on the back of the postcard describes the ship landing at North Star Bay in Greenland after sailing through “thick fogs and heavy ice drifts.”
1909
The SS Roosevelt is stuck in ice. The edges of the postcard are decorated with illustrations of Arctic scenes. The description on the back of the postcard describes the ship as “but an eggshell in [the icebergs’] grasp.” The men on Commander Peary’s arctic expedition had to be willing to sacrifice their lives for the “great work” of the exploration.
1909
The crew of the SS Roosevelt, which sailed on an expedition to the North Pole from 1908 to 1909. The edges of the postcard are decorated with illustrations of Arctic scenes. The description on the back of the postcard explains that Captain Bob Bartlett is the man standing on the far right, below the “X”.
1909
Kermit Roosevelt photographs his father Theodore Roosevelt with a group of African people. Kermit was the official photographer of the African safari from 1909 to 1910. The message written on the postcard to Sedalia Momrer invites her and her sister to Matt Scheckel’s home on Friday night.
1910-02-21
Theodore Roosevelt and several other men sit and stand around the front of a train engine in Africa. Roosevelt’s African safari lasted from March 1909 until 1910, and he and his expedition crew collected about 11,400 animal specimens for the Smithsonian. They also hunted big game during the trip.
1909
Theodore Roosevelt stands on the top deck and a crowd of people gather on the lower deck as the ship arrives in Mombasa harbor. Roosevelt left for his African safari on March 23, 1909, and returned in June 1910.
1910