To the dear public!
Subject(s): Presidents--Public opinion, Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919, Valentines
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President Roosevelt holds his big stick and points at a large heart that includes his face, which gets progressively smaller for each line of text. Caption: “If of me you’d cease to think my heart would shrink and shr-r-rink and shr-r-r-r-ink.”
Comments and Context
Despite Theodore Roosevelt’s depiction in this cartoon in a more elaborate Rough Rider uniform than usual, and despite the imminence of his retirement and African safari, the drawing’s context is more mundane… and more obscure to readers more than a century later. The date of the cartoon — Valentine’s Day eve — is dispositive.
The holiday’s popular novelty that year was an unusual Valentine greeting exactly as shown in Edward Joseph McBride’s drawing, with the exact sentiment he quoted. What was sold in stationery stores, and sent to blushing lovers, was a string of progressively smaller hearts, connected by leather strings (so to be a mobile) with the messages on hearts in pyrography — lettering burnt into leather or wood.
In the popular Valentines, the words were spelled correctly, but McBride assigned an apical-alveolar trill to the Rs… which in fact captured Roosevelt’s pronunciation quite well.
Collection
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
Creation Date
1909-02-13
Creator(s)
Language
English
Period
U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)
Repository
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
Page Count
1
Production Method
Record Type
Image
Resource Type
Rights
These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.
Citation
Cite this Record
Chicago:
To the dear public!. [February 13, 1909]. Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o302094. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
McBride, Edward Joseph, 1889-. To the dear public!. [13 Feb. 1909]. Image.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o302094.
APA:
McBride, Edward Joseph, 1889-., [1909, February 13]. To the dear public!.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o302094.
Cite this Collection
Chicago:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University.
MLA:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. March 12, 2026. https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division.
APA:
Library of Congress Manuscript Division. Theodore Roosevelt Digital Library. Dickinson State University. Retrieved from https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/collection/library-of-congress-manuscript-division.
