Beth Noyes – Practically Everything You Write Goes Into History

Originally posted to the TR Center blog on July 22, 2011.
As the interns wrap up their hours throughout this month, we ask them to share some of their discoveries while working in the Theodore Roosevelt digital library collections. Today, Beth from California shares with us some of her favorite finds.

The first letter I cataloged for the Theodore Roosevelt Center was about hunting bears. Immediately, I knew that my internship would be all I had hoped for. I read letters to Roosevelt about all sorts of topics, from flower parades to the Russo-Japanese War. Most of the documents I cataloged were dated from July to August 1904, a time when Roosevelt was preparing for the presidential election of 1904. While reading letters discussing his campaign and letter of acceptance, I saw that many people of the time respected Roosevelt and knew he would hold an important place in the history of the United States. Even Alton B. Parker, his Democratic opponent in the election, felt he could write to Roosevelt to ask for an autograph. In this letter from July 25, 1904, Parker asks Roosevelt to sign a photograph for the Pach brothers.

People of the time knew Roosevelt was going to be of interest to future generations. Certainly, George B. Cortelyou, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, had an idea of the broad impact Roosevelt would have. In a letter from August 12, 1904, Cortelyou is somewhat distraught because of a letter Roosevelt sent him about the Northern Securities matter. Concerned with how future historians will interpret this letter, Cortelyou replies, “Practically everything you write goes into history. Your correspondence will naturally be published some day, and what you have said in portions of this letter to me rings so true that it would inevitably be selected as indicative of your character; but it is addressed to me and it carries an inference, plain and unmistakable, that is unwarranted by the facts.”

Cortelyou understood that Roosevelt’s legacy would endure long past the time in which they lived. Perhaps he could sense that Roosevelt’s strong character would be remembered over 100 years later. Cortelyou was right about Roosevelt’s correspondence being published, although I doubt he could have envisioned how widely accessible that correspondence would become with the advent of digital libraries.

Beth received an M.S.I from the University of Michigan. She is currently helping to process the Stephen Jay Gould papers at Stanford.