Beds

Eight men sleep in a bed with sweat on their forehead as they all dream about “third term sentiment.” The men include Ohio Senator Theodore E. Burton, Benjamin B. Odell, South Carolina Benjamin R. Tillman with a pitchfork, William Randolph Hearst, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Edward Henry Harriman, and John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The “Third Term” question was for President Roosevelt like a bad penny or a stray dog that he could not shake. He declared on election night, 1904, that he would not stand for re-election in 1908. He made this clear to politicians and friends and, by implication — for instance, by promoting William H. Taft as a favored successor — but seldom reasserted his intentions to the public. He felt that to say it too often — and the demands to do so were incessant — would have weakened the force of the declination or seemed like “protesting too much.” He said it, and that should have been enough.

Richard Harding Davis offers his thoughts on the most important elements to bring along while hiking or marching long distances, backed up by his experiences as a war correspondent.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-04

Photograph of Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees sitting on cots in the camp barracks at the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area. The photograph is part of a three-binder set of pictures taken by Chandler D. Fairbank, Civilian Conservation Corps North Unit foreman at the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area, taken between 1936 and 1937.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Creation Date

1936-1937

This postcard shows the lavishly decorated bedroom of King Louis XIV at Versailles, with decorations and furniture said to be the same as they would have been at the time of his death in 1715. The canopied bed is flanked to either side by large painted portraits. A railing separates the bed from the main part of the room.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “This is the bed room of Louis 14 showing this furniture and the bed upon which he died Spt.1 1715.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

A young boy–“California”–falls out of bed and says, “Help! Help! Papa, the Japs are comin’!” President Roosevelt says, “Hush, son, it’s only a nightmare.” Caption: He’s dreaming again.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Nelson Harding borrowed from a popular comic strip in a competitor of his own Brooklyn Eagle for this cartoon. He was hardly giving free advertising to a rival (New York Herald) because the comics strip Little Nemo in Slumberland had swept New York City and much of the nation, appearing not only in Sunday funny papers, but in reprint books, games, and toys; and at the time of this cartoon was transformed into a lavish Broadway operetta with a cast of hundreds of actors and animals, and music by Victor Herbert.

Alton B. Parker hides underneath a bed and says, “I will speak.” “Miss Democracy” watches him as she knits. Caption: Miss Democracy—(After punishing her candidate for his anti-imperialistic language), No Alton, you must stay where you are. Silence in your case is indeed golden.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-18

President Roosevelt readies his big stick, labeled “1912,” standing above the sleeping form of President Taft.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1911-1912

Print shows the ghost of the British Lion reacting with fear at finding an “Irish American” and a “German American” in a bed labeled “Anti Anglo-American Alliance.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1899-05-03

President Wilson as a doctor stands at an open door labeled “63rd Congress,” telling Uncle Sam as an expectant father standing outside the door that it looks like “it’s going to be twins.” In other words, the 63rd Congress will pass legislation on tariff reform and currency reform, as Oscar W. Underwood, coming upstairs, brings a second bed labeled “Currency Reform” to place next to a bed labeled “Tariff Reform.” Caption: Dr. Wilson–Prepare yourself for a great joy. I think it’s going to be twins.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1913-07-16

Photograph of Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee Linez C. Folven lying on a bunk reading in a barracks at the Roosevelt Recreation Demonstration Area.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Creation Date

1939-1941