Wynn, Gregory A.

Gregory A. Wynn chronicles the 2020 annual meeting of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) at the National War College (NWC) in Washington, D.C. Wynn highlights the difficulties encountered and overcome with carrying out the meeting in the midst of a pandemic, and he praises the staff of the NWC for employing technology to allow for online participation. Wynn notes the various panels and speakers, and he lists the winners of various TRA awards from book awards to the USS Theodore Roosevelt Junior Officer Leadership Award, the Bertha B. Rose Award, and a special TRA Medal of Honor for Public Service to James N. Mattis.

Five photographs, a book cover, and the front and back covers of the meeting program illustrate the report.

Gregory A. Wynn describes a rare item from his Theodore Roosevelt collection, a flask depicting Roosevelt dressed as a woman and a suffragette. Wynn believes the flask probably originated in England and that it meant to poke fun at Roosevelt for supporting women’s suffrage. Photographs of Wynn and the flask accompany the essay.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020

Gregory A. Wynn chronicles the search by the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA) for a home for its extensive Theodore Roosevelt Collection. Wynn highlights the choice between Columbia and Harvard University, and he highlights the group’s sensitivity to the feelings of Theodore Roosevelt’s widow, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, as well as those of Nora E. Cordingley, the collection’s caretaker at its home at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace. Wynn reveals the disagreements and tensions between members of the RMA and the arguments made for and against each university gaining the collection, and he notes that the New York Public Library was also considered as the repository for the collection.

Three pieces of correspondence from the RMA and a photograph of John A. Gable with Hermann Hagedorn supplement the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Gregory A. Wynn spotlights one of the rare items from his extensive Theodore Roosevelt collection, a Royal Doulton mug bearing the likeness of Theodore Roosevelt. Wynn provides a brief history of the Royal Doulton company, notes the rarity of the Roosevelt jug, and explains why the jug was produced. Wynn also highlights the modeler who designed the jug, Arthur Leslie Harradine. A photograph of Wynn and two photographs of the Roosevelt jug appear in the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020

Gregory A. Wynn introduces ten previously unknown and unpublished letters from Theodore Roosevelt to his sister Anna Roosevelt Cowles. Wynn recounts that the letters had been donated to the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) before they were made a part of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard University. Six of the letters date from 1885 and reveal aspects of Roosevelt’s life in the Dakota Badlands and four date from the 1890s when Roosevelt served as a United States Civil Service Commissioner. Wynn provides commentary on Cowles, noting her prominent role in the Roosevelt family, including caring for an infant Alice Roosevelt Longworth. A photograph of the Elkhorn Ranch house and two photographs of Cowles supplement the essay.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2019

Gregory A. Wynn writes that his criticisms of Michael Cullinane’s Theodore Roosevelt’s Ghost: The History and Memory of an American Icon amount to “merely quibbles,” and he states that it is thoroughly researched and well-written. Wynn highlights the work of Kathleen Dalton, Henry F. Pringle, and John A. Gable in his review, and he describes the wide ranging topics addressed by Cullinane, including the work of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) in safeguarding the memory of Theodore Roosevelt. Wynn notes that Cullinane’s work should serve as an inspiration to members of the TRA to continue the organization’s work.

Two photographs, including one of Cullinane, supplement the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Gregory A. Wynn describes three small books from his Theodore Roosevelt collection that claim to have been written by Roosevelt even though he was dead. The books purport to speak for Roosevelt in what Wynn characterizes as a manifestation of the post World War I interest in spiritualism. Wynn notes the publishers of these works and their claims that the contents were dictated by Roosevelt through mediums. A photograph of Wynn and two photographs of two of these works accompany the essay.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2016

Gregory A. Wynn charts the history of three rhinoceros inkwells connected to Theodore Roosevelt. One belonged to Roosevelt and has a prominent place on his desk at Sagamore Hill and two others were gifts from Roosevelt to John Callan O’Laughlin and Lawrence F. Abbott, both of whom accompanied Roosevelt on parts of his African safari and European trip in 1909-1910. Wynn notes the manufacturers of the inkwells, their provenance, and he situates them in the context of Roosevelt’s love of big game hunting.

A photograph of Wynn and three photographs of the inkwells supplement the text.

Gregory A. Wynn addresses the role that the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) and the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal (TRAJ) have played in shaping the historiography of Theodore Roosevelt. Wynn dwells on the work and contributions of John A. Gable, a long-time editor of the TRAJ in both fostering scholarship on Roosevelt and producing his own. Wynn highlights the work of Roosevelt biographers such as Edmund Morris, Kathleen Dalton, and Henry F. Pringle, and he identifies deficits in the study of Roosevelt that need to be addressed such as his presidency and his intellect.

A photograph of Wynn, the front cover of Dalton’s biography, and an excerpt of a letter from Gable to Wynn accompany the address.

In his material culture of Theodore Roosevelt column, Gregory A. Wynn highlights a rare letter from Roosevelt which has an unusual ending: Roosevelt signs the letter as “Teddy R.” Wynn notes that Roosevelt rarely used this term to refer to himself, noting that less than a dozen such letters exist. Wynn thanks the Theodore Roosevelt Center for helping to identify these letters, and he mentions that he and many other Roosevelt scholars share the aversion to referring to Roosevelt as “Teddy.” Illustrations of the letter and its envelope accompany the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2015

Gregory A. Wynn provides the backstory to a rare item from his Theodore Roosevelt collection. Wynn describes a handbill produced at the time of the Republican convention of 1912 in Chicago that sarcastically claimed that Roosevelt would walk on the waters of Lake Michigan. Wynn examines the biblical roots of the handbill’s message and notes that Roosevelt’s detractors would have produced and endorsed its message. Wynn highlights President Lyndon B. Johnson’s invoking the handbill at the dedication of Theodore Roosevelt Island in 1967.

A photograph of Wynn, a photograph of the Roosevelt statue on Theodore Roosevelt Island, and a full page reproduction of the handbill illustrate the essay. A text box with the mission statement of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) appears at the end of the feature.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Gregory A. Wynn presents an item from his Theodore Roosevelt collection, an obscure pamphlet, Roosevelt: Lover of Books, that was published by the Syracuse, New York, public library in 1920. The pamphlet includes a variety of lists, including books and book introductions written by Roosevelt, and references to famous authors found in Roosevelt’s writings. The pamphlet also includes a section, “T.R.’s note book,” that provides brief reviews of other authors and their work taken from Roosevelt’s books. A text box with the mission statement of the Theodore Roosevelt Association appears in the column.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2014

Gregory A. Wynn explores the life of American photographer Edward S. Curtis who photographed Theodore Roosevelt’s family in 1904 and 1905. Wynn argues that Curtis’s 1904 portrait “is the single best studio photograph” of Roosevelt. Wynn details Curtis’s decades long struggle to photograph, write, and produce his multi-volume The North American Indian, and he highlights the roles played by Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan in promoting and financing the project. In an addendum to his essay, Wynn notes that the Roosevelt collection of his friend Peter Scanlan came to auction, and he highlights the sale of pieces that have been featured in previous editions of his material culture column. 

Five Curtis photographs supplement the text along with the title page of The North American Indian and illustrations of three items from the Scanlan auction. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Gregory A. Wynn informs his readers that he will be suspending his “The Material Culture of Theodore Roosevelt” column because of an overseas military assignment. Wynn hopes to resume his column upon his return, and he recommends a book written by four members of the Roosevelt family, Cleared for Strange Ports. A photograph of Wynn and his son and two dogs appears in the column along with the logo of the Theodore Roosevelt Association. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2013

Gregory A. Wynn chronicles the work of the sculptor Vincenzo Miserendino who Wynn believes has produced the finest likenesses of Theodore Roosevelt. Wynn highlights two Miserendino bronze sculptures of Roosevelt placed in Mount Vernon, New York, and Boone, Iowa. Wynn provides a biography of Miserendino and notes his body of work, but he focuses on the five different sculptures he created with Roosevelt as his subject. Wynn notes the location and status of Miserendino’s Roosevelt sculptures. 

Six photographs of Miserendino’s sculptures supplement the text. 

Gregory A. Wynn chronicles his nearly thirty year friendship with fellow Theodore Roosevelt collector Peter Scanlan. Wynn charts the relationship from its beginning in 1984 to Scanlan’s death in 2012, and he focuses on their shared enthusiasm for collecting items, especially books, related to Roosevelt’s life. Wynn notes their travels together to bookshops, antique shows, and auctions in search of more goods for their collections. Wynn notes that he and Scanlan helped grow each other’s collections, and he asserts that Scanlan’s Roosevelt collection may have been the preeminent private collection in the United States. 

Five photographs, including two of Wynn and Scanlan together, accompany the text along with an image of a poster that both men competed for at an auction. 

Gregory A. Wynn describes the nineteen page book produced by the Roosevelt Memorial Association to promote the construction of a Theodore Roosevelt memorial in Washington, D.C. Wynn also examines other projects undertaken in the nation’s capital by the project’s architect, John Russell Pope.  Wynn discusses why the proposed memorial failed to be built, and he compares its design to the National World War II Memorial. A photograph of Wynn and photographs of the book’s cover and title page appear in the article. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2011

Gregory A. Wynn examines the status of “perhaps the rarest of all presidential publications,” the memorial tribute book for Alice Lee Roosevelt and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt written by Theodore Roosevelt after the women’s deaths in February 1884. Wynn notes the discovery and use of the rare copies of this work by Roosevelt biographers, and he highlights the five known copies by noting who donated or purchased them, and he lists the libraries or private collections where the copies are housed. Four photographs and the logo of the Theodore Roosevelt Association supplement the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2011

Gregory A. Wynn describes the set of china ordered by Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt for the White House during President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration. Wynn traces the history of White House china, and he highlights the selection of Wedgwood china from England as the supplier for the Roosevelt White House. Wynn writes that Edith Roosevelt ordered all of the chipped and broken pieces be destroyed rather than sold at the end of her husband’s term. The Roosevelt china, the first to employ the seal of the United States, was kept and used during President William Howard Taft’s administration. 

Four photographs of examples of the china from Wynn’s collection supplement the article. A text box with the mission statement of the Theodore Roosevelt Association appears at the end of the column.

Gregory A. Wynn argues that Theodore Roosevelt was not ashamed or humiliated by his father’s lack of active military service during the Civil War. Wynn notes that this assertion is too often invoked when discussing Roosevelt’s relationship with his father when there is little evidence to support it. Wynn details the elder Theodore Roosevelt’s work during the war promoting and managing a system which allowed soldiers to send money home to their families. Wynn highlights Roosevelt’s meetings with President Abraham Lincoln who approved of the allotment system overseen by Roosevelt.

Illustrations of two allotment system documents and a calling card, and a photograph of Wynn accompany the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal