Birds

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910-08-09

Creator(s)

Grey of Fallodon, Edward Grey, Viscount, 1862-1933

Recipient

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Theodore Roosevelt informs H. D. Minot that he enjoyed his time at camp and was successful in hunting and fishing. Roosevelt also describes the various species of birds that he saw.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1877-07-11

While sailing down the Nile, fourteen year old Theodore Roosevelt wrote this essay about the geography and birds found in Egypt between Cairo and Aswan.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1872-12

Theodore Roosevelt will read Mammals of the Mexican Boundary with great interest. Roosevelt looks forward to when Edgar Alexander Mearns will publish a more extensive book on the mammals and birds of East Africa.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-08

President Roosevelt thanks Frances M. Abbott for her book, Birds and flowers about Concord, New Hampshire, noting that he knows little about flowers and only what a layman would know about birds.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-09-14

President Roosevelt tells Frank M. Chapman about a yellow-throated warbler he recently shot, and invites him to come visit next spring when the birds are here. Roosevelt appreciated Chapman’s editorial in Bird Lore regarding the nature fakers controversy and laments that people like The Outlook editor Lyman Abbott are accepting the stories of William J. Long and other fakers.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-26

President Roosevelt thanks John Lewis Childs for sending him the nest.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-24

John M. Phillips appreciates the pamphlet on “Concealing Coloration in Birds and Mammals” sent by Theodore Roosevelt and thinks it is a valuable contribution to the scientific field. He denigrates Abbott Handerson Thayer’s views on camouflage and is glad that Roosevelt will be writing a letter to the editor of The Open. He also appreciated Roosevelt’s words against William J. Long’s fake natural history.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-16

Raymond Pearl thanks Theodore Roosevelt for his letter, agrees that his experiments don’t disprove the protective coloration theory, and says he hopes to publish more data soon.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-12

William Beebe thanks Theodore Roosevelt for his letter of introduction of bird capturing at lighthouses.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-09-11

Two birds who are drawn as President Roosevelt, holding a “big stick,” and William Jennings Bryan stand on a “platform.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

At the time of this cartoon’s publication, the Brooklyn Eagle had two political cartoonists, William K. Starrett and Nelson Harding. The former withdrew in favor of Harding, and drew for several papers in New York State and Philadelphia before entering the comic-strip field; Harding remained for two decades with the Eagle, winning two Pulitzer Prizes before leaving for Hearst’s New York Journal.

Uncle Sam covers his ears and says “Shut up!” as two birds depicting President Roosevelt and Edward Henry Harriman squawk at one another. Roosevelt says, “Liar, liar, liar!” while Harriman says, “You’re another!”

Comments and Context

The vituperative controversy between President Roosevelt and railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman grew more bitter as 1907 progressed, in spite of other issues, including the Wall Street Panic. Harriman had generally supported the Republican Party — although, like many trust magnates, he played both sides of the political street — but by 1906 had grown angry with the Republican President Roosevelt. The immediate cause was dissatisfaction with a myriad of reforms backed by Roosevelt — and by much of the public and press, and a growing band of insurgents in Congress.

Harriman’s public criticisms of the president grew more strident, and Roosevelt characteristically responded in kind. After a summit meeting in the White House in March 1907, at which J. P. Morgan represented the railroad leaders, Harriman leaked a letter from the 1904 campaign that purportedly showed that Roosevelt solicited campaign funds from Harriman; the latter supposedly conditioned the donation on an overseas diplomatic appointment for New York Senator Chauncey M. Depew; supposedly, Roosevelt reneged.

President Roosevelt watches a Republican elephant chase a “democracy” bird from the front of the “White House.” Caption: The Only Bird of National Repute Chased Recently From the White House Grounds.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-30

A narrative of Theodore Roosevelt’s role in bird preservation which includes factual footage taken on his visit under the auspices of the National Audubon Society to bird sanctuary islands off the coast of Louisiana, June 1915. Mating habits and domestic life of snowy egrets and their plunder by hunters are dramatized. Scenes of egrets’ nests and the hunt, kill, and plucking of birds serve as the prologue to depiction of Roosevelt as bird preservationist. Views of Roosevelt and John Milliken Parker, leader of the Louisiana Progressive party, aboard the Audubon Society’s boat, the Royal Tern. Views of Roosevelt standing in marshes, with what is perhaps the Louisiana Conservation Commission yacht in background. Herbert Keightley Job, photographer for the expedition and noted ornithologist, appears on the beach with his camera. Roosevelt examines eggs and talks with other members of the expedition: a man who is probably J. Hippolyte Coquille, a local photographer; M. L. Alexander in light pants, president of the Louisiana Conservation Commission; Parker, with his back to camera; and game warden William Sprinkle. Additional scenes of Roosevelt exploring the island and observing birds along the beach, and views of a variety of shore birds including royal terns, black skimmers, laughing gulls, brown pelicans, blue herons, and egrets.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1924

Typed excerpt from Chapter IX of Theodore Roosevelt’s Autobiography, describing Sagamore Hill, especially the surrounding birds and flowers.

Collection

Dickinson State University

Creation Date

1913

President Roosevelt writes his son Kermit about the weather in Washington, D.C., and what he and Edith have been doing. Everything seems to be going well at the Republican National Convention and Taft will probably get the nomination. Roosevelt encloses letters that deal with their Africa trip.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1908-06-13

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit and tells him all the family is away at the moment. He speaks of all the birds he has seen and the walks and rides he has gone on. He also complains about a hard time with the Senate over the rate bill. Roosevelt says he is sorry Kermit did not do better in his studies last month.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-02-25

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit to tell him what he is reading and discusses playing with Archie, Quentin, and Archie’s new puppy. Roosevelt got a new horse and has been playing a lot of tennis. Roosevelt describes the birds he sees on his walks. He adds that he is satisfied that everyone enjoyed their trip to Havana.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1906-04-12

President Roosevelt writes to his son Kermit that John Hay is ill and Frank Travers has died. He also mentions going to New York to give away Eleanor Roosevelt in marriage. He has been riding a lot with Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt and has been playing tennis with Matt and Ted. The birds have returned and Archie and Quentin played with friends.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1905-03-20

Theodore Roosevelt describes for his daughter Ethel Roosevelt the heavy rain at his camp near Santiago, Cuba, and how a bad night storm ruined his hammock and tent. He also describes the birds in the area and a particularly funny little lizard.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1898-07-15