Boy Scouts of America

The first part of a two part article, “TR and the Boy Scouts,” notes that Theodore Roosevelt was a supporter of the Boy Scouts and that members of the organization made pilgrimages to his grave site. In the second part, “With Little Children,” Roger W. Straus describes meeting Roosevelt in the Cabinet room of the White House, and he notes how kind the president was to the small children in attendance.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1991

A group of Boy Scouts of America make their annual pilgrimage to the gravesite of Theodore Roosevelt. Some are seen marching in a procession, carrying U.S. flags. Daniel Carter Beard, Scout Commissioner, is helped up the steps by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and others. Beard lays a wreath. Footage of President Roosevelt speaking is superimposed over his headstone. A number of other brief segments follow, including young men and women posing for a photograph, a man and a woman talking, and a large number of people–mostly children–exiting a house.

Collection

Sherman Grinberg Film Collection

Creation Date

1923-10-23

Daniel Carter Beard, founder of the Sons of Daniel Boone and Boy Scout leader, leads the annual Boy Scout memorial ceremony at the gravesite of Theodore Roosevelt. He is surrounded by Boy Scouts, some dressed as Native Americans. A bugler blows while standing in front of the headstone.

Collection

Sherman Grinberg Film Collection

Creation Date

1931-10-24

Boy Scouts and others march in a procession honoring the memory of Theodore Roosevelt. Boy Scout Founder Daniel Carter Beard and others lay wreaths at the gravesite, and a Boy Scout blows a bugle as others listen with their hats held over their hearts. A close-up shot shows the inscription on the headstone.

Collection

Sherman Grinberg Film Collection

Creation Date

1929

Historical reenactor Bob Boyd recounts the four years he spent doing a one man show as Theodore Roosevelt. He explains how a typical program would proceed with an emphasis on its press conference when he would take unscripted questions from students. Boyd discusses the genesis of the program and how he garnered the role of Roosevelt. He explains the role of the Florida Department of Citrus in sponsoring the program and how its success led to its touring nationwide.  Boyd also explains how he studied and prepared to accurately portray Roosevelt.

Two photographs accompany the article: one shows Boyd in costume as Roosevelt greeting students and the other shows Boyd as he appears out of costume.

Nicholas LaBella, the Superintendent of Youngs Memorial Cemetery, describes the organizations and groups that make pilgrimages and visits to Theodore Roosevelt’s grave during the course of a year. He notes that the Masons come in April and the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars in May. October, the month of Roosevelt’s birth, is the “busiest month for formal pilgrimages.” 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1978

Hermann Hagedorn uses quotes from various friends, family, and colleagues of Theodore Roosevelt to demonstrate that he had an active Christian faith that he nurtured with Bible study and regular church attendance. He employs these quotations to counter the argument that Roosevelt was not a Christian and because Roosevelt himself seldom spoke openly about his faith.

Reverend George E. Talmadge, the Rector of Christ Church in Oyster Bay, New York, provides a view of Theodore Roosevelt the parishioner. He provides a number of anecdotes about Roosevelt’s participation in Sunday services and his support of church ministries. Talmadge discusses Roosevelt’s religious roots in the Dutch Reformed Church, his work with the Boy Scouts, and the death of Quentin Roosevelt.

Brief notice about the fiftieth anniversary of Camp Roosevelt, a Boy Scout Camp in New Jersey named for President Roosevelt. The Theodore Roosevelt Association donated a picture and two autographs of Roosevelt to the camp.  

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1978

Overton W. Price sees the Boy Scout Movement as offering important lessons for the boys of America to learn. Boy Scouts learn valuable lessons about courage, unselfishness, knowledge, health, incisiveness, and citizenship.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-23

Boy Scouts of America’s April 17, 1911 newsletter contains seven articles. Ernest Thompson Seton compares the American Boys Scouts with the British Boy Scouts. The British scouts are more disciplined, whereas the American scouts are skillful at camping and have “greater lung power.” There is a discussion on doing a troop exchange. National Scout Commissioner Daniel Carter Beard discusses how scouts should regard men like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone as heroes rather than Jesse James or Robin Hood-type characters. The Executive Board plans to establish a Scout Masters’ School at Silver Bay, New York, in conjunction with the Boys’ Workers Camp. The two new manuals are almost ready to be published. Lorillard Spencer is planning summer activities for New York scoutmasters. New Jersey scouts are cleaning up areas to prevent mosquitoes. Italian scouts are working on propagating universal peace.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-17

Tickets for the dance and national whist party sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04

This tape recording presents the audio from several Edison Amberol cylinders which originally recorded speeches by Theodore Roosevelt given in 1912. Speeches presented here include “The Right of the People to Rule,” “The Farmer and the Businessman,” “Social and Industrial Justice,” and “The Progressive Covenant.” Additionally, there are several iterations of Roosevelt’s address to the Boys Progressive League in 1912, including one prefaced by an introduction by Daniel Carter Beard, the founder of the organization the Sons of Daniel Boone, which later merged with the Boy Scouts of America.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association

Creation Date

1969-05-20

This motion picture dramatizes a visit of a troop of Boy Scouts to the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site. A young boy who is not a scout joins the troop for their visit, and they are all inspired by the way that the young Theodore Roosevelt improved his physical fitness, and later took on adventures that brought him around the world to Africa and South America.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association

Creation Date

Unknown

A long parade of Boy Scouts carrying flags marches on their way to visit Theodore Roosevelt’s grave. In a second shot, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. and Daniel Carter Beard briefly speak together.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1920

Margaret Sanger writes about the Boy Scouts, stating that the movement was imported to the United States from Great Britain and “seized upon most enthusiastically by America’s grown up boy scout, Theodore Roosevelt.” Sanger criticized the Boy Scouts, claiming the organization was intended to train boys to obey and prepare them for the military, support the capitalists, and continue the oppression of the working class. She argues that President Roosevelt was “delighted” to “hasten” these ideas upon American society.

Collection

The Margaret Sanger Papers Project

Creation Date

1912-04-06

Theodore Roosevelt describes the problems he observes in a county that has absorbed successive waves of immigrants. Some of the newcomers to the county are wealthy, and for the most part, they do not dwell there and contribute to community life. The people who do have roots in the county are made up of a mix of “old native stock” and new immigrants, and each group has its own problems. Among the old families, the philosophy of individualism, with no responsibility owed to others, has degraded the sense of community. Although material prosperity has grown, many families have regressed. Rather than stewarding their good fortune wisely, they frittered it away in get-rich-quick schemes or simply stopped working. In addition to being seduced by wealth, many of them lost church connections. This loss leads to a tendency “to let the home run down and to be shiftless in labor.”

The immigrants offer a different set of problems. They value hard work, but they prize self-reliance so highly as to lack a sense of duty to the community. The Germans and the Irish were able to assimilate into the community over time, but the recent immigrants, predominantly Poles and Italians, find assimilation more difficult. The public school is the only “Americanizing institution” they encounter, and while the school does admirable work, other agencies must reinforce and supplement the schools’ work. The church is among those agencies, along with guilds and societies and clubs for men and women.

Finally, Roosevelt discusses the need to provide healthy entertainment, including hard sport. The YMCA and the Boy Scouts are commended for their contributions to the growth of young men. These organizations may be key to stemming the tide of migration from the rural areas into the cities.

This article was published in Ladies Home Journal in October 1917.

In this article, Theodore Roosevelt presents arguments in favor of community action and rendering service to others. He describes the activities of a civic association that has achieved great benefits for its community and proposes it as a model for others to follow. He concludes by noting that an individual doing genuine, disinterested service for others may find himself to be the greatest beneficiary.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1917

A young “Boy Scout” standing outside his tent meets “Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill, Texas Jack [Omohundro], Kit Carson, California Joe, [and] Dan’l Boone.” Caption: “Put it thar, Pard! Yer do us proud!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912-06-05

Photograph of a Minot, North Dakota, Boy Scout troop cleaning up vandalism off of sandstone at Wind Canyon in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Creation Date

1961-08-26

Photograph of a Minot, North Dakota, Boy Scout troop cleaning vandalism off of sandstone at Wind Canyon in the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Creation Date

1961-08-26