Butt, Archibald Willingham, 1866-1912

President Roosevelt was glad to receive Fitzhugh Lee’s letter, and was very interested to read what he wrote about the French cavalry school and the French military in general. Roosevelt tells Lee about the goings-on in the Roosevelt household and the activities of the Roosevelt children. He was pleased about the results of the presidential election, and thinks that president-elect William H. Taft will do a good job.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-27

President Roosevelt tells Joel Chandler Harris of a recent conversation that he had with Fitzhugh Lee and Archibald Willingham Butt in which they discussed the popularity of the song Dixie, and how they wished that the Battle Hymn of the Republic was as well known. Roosevelt asks if Harris would print the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic in his magazine to help popularize the song.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-15

President Roosevelt sends Joel Chandler Harris a letter that may or may not be for publication, depending on whether Harris thinks it wise.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-06-14

President Roosevelt encloses a report from Archibald Willingham Butt regarding the “scandalous” conditions of the stables, which Roosevelt believes should be brought before a congressional committee.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-02-24

W. J. Oliver extends his sympathy to President Taft upon the death of Major Butt, Taft’s military aide. Butt was lost during the sinking of RMS Titanic.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-04-18

William H. Pettus has already obtained autographed photographs of President William H. Taft and Major Archibald Willingham Butt and requests Theodore Roosevelt send an autographed photograph for Pettus to take with him on his ministerial journey.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-09

Nicholas Longworth expresses to Theodore Roosevelt his concern over recent news that Roosevelt has accepted an invitation to dine with Robert J. Collier. He inquires if there is any foundation for the story, and explains that Collier “is the vilest muckraking sheet in the country,” having criticized both President Taft and Longworth himself.  Longworth also worries that a letter from Roosevelt has fallen into the hands of some publication, as he has not received it a week after it was sent. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-29

President Taft wishes Theodore Roosevelt well on his African safari and discusses the strangeness of being referred to as “Mr. President.” He compares his presidential and political prospects with what Roosevelt achieved in office and assures Roosevelt that he plans on furthering the same agenda.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-03-21

Secretary of War Wright thanks President Roosevelt for the gift of a cane cut from the wood of The Hermitage, which was presented to him by Captain Archibald Willingham Butt. Wright will keep it as a souvenir of his time spent with Roosevelt, and will pass it along to his oldest son. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-15

Captain Frank Ross McCoy thanks President Roosevelt for giving him a share of the credit for improving the army’s horsemanship standards. McCoy wishes that he could have joined Roosevelt on his ride to Warrenton, which he feels set an excellent example for lazy officers. Although McCoy envies Roosevelt’s current aide, Captain Archibald Willingham Butt, he is glad to have implemented real improvements to the cavalry during his own tenure in the position. McCoy hopes that, before March 4, Roosevelt can suggest to the committee revising the Field Service Regulations that the organization and training of army pack trains be improved. Packing for cavalry is becoming a “lost art.” McCoy also shares his plans for Presidents’ Day.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-02

Captain Archibald Willingham Butt confirms that he will have two replacement men by the time William Loeb returns to Oyster Bay, as per Loeb’s earlier memorandum. Nelson P. Webster also notes that Colonel W. H. Crook will send a report on the sorrel and bay teams.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-11

Stacey A. Cordery reviews the final volume of Edmund Morris’s trilogy of the life of Theodore Roosevelt, Colonel Roosevelt. Cordery contends that with his final volumes on Roosevelt, Morris has restored his reputation as a biographer which had been damaged by his inventive biography of Ronald Reagan, Dutch. Cordery praises Morris for his “marvelous prose” and his ability to set a scene, but she balks at some of the language he employs, especially references to sexuality and race. Cordery asserts that Morris handles politics poorly, and that he pays insufficient attention to the women in Roosevelt’s life, especially his wife Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt. Cordery believes that Morris has not adequately incorporated the latest in Roosevelt scholarship, but she recognizes that his work has made Roosevelt known to legions of readers and elevated his place in American culture. 

 

The front cover illustrations for all three volumes of Morris’s trilogy appear in the review.

Gregory A. Wynn describes the set of china ordered by Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt for the White House during President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration. Wynn traces the history of White House china, and he highlights the selection of Wedgwood china from England as the supplier for the Roosevelt White House. Wynn writes that Edith Roosevelt ordered all of the chipped and broken pieces be destroyed rather than sold at the end of her husband’s term. The Roosevelt china, the first to employ the seal of the United States, was kept and used during President William Howard Taft’s administration. 

 

Four photographs of examples of the china from Wynn’s collection supplement the article. A text box with the mission statement of the Theodore Roosevelt Association appears at the end of the column.

Gary Rice examines how the press covered Theodore Roosevelt’s 1909-1910 African safari. Rice stresses that Roosevelt wanted to severely restrict journalists’ access to his safari because the former president had signed contracts to publish his own articles and books, and he wanted to control what was written. Rice also notes that the press extensively covered Roosevelt’s preparations for the trip, and he highlights a scandal that erupted when a French journalist published an unauthorized story about Roosevelt during the safari. Roosevelt later relented and allowed American reporters Robert W. Foran and Warrington Dawson to file reports from Africa.

Rice notes that much of the coverage of the safari dealt with the number of animals Roosevelt had killed, and it stoked debates about the ethics of Roosevelt’s hunting. Rice concludes that Roosevelt’s safari and its coverage provided him with “an even bigger, more favorable public image.” Three photographs of Roosevelt in Africa appear in the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Photograph showing President Roosevelt with his “Tennis Cabinet” on the White House lawn on March 1, 1909, when a farewell luncheon was held for the group. Shown from left to right behind Theodore Roosevelt are military aide Archie Butt, Third Assistant Secretary of State William Phillips, Commissioner of the Bureau of Corporations Herbert Knox Smith, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Beekman Winthrop, Chief of U.S. Forest Service Gifford Pinchot, Comptroller of Currency Lawrence O. Murray, U.S. District Attorney Henry L. Stimson, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Herbert Livingston Satterlee, Associate Justice William H. Moody, U.S. District Attorney John Carter Rose, Secretary of the Navy Truman Handy Newberry, G. W. Woodruff, French Ambassador J. J. Jusserand, William Walter Heffelfinger, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Commission of Indian Affairs Francis E. Leupp, John Avery McIlhenny, Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield, U.S. Marshal Seth Bullock, Solicitor General Henry Martyn Hoyt, U.S. Marshal John R. Abernathy, Luther S. Kelly, Secretary of State Robert Bacon, Commissioner of Labor Charles Patrick Neill, William Wingate Sewall, Commissioner General of Immigration Daniel J. Keefe, First Assistant Secretary of State James Callan O’Laughlin, James Bronson Reynolds, Henry S. Pritchett, and secretary William Loeb. In the foreground is the Alexander Phimster Proctor sculpture, “Stalking Panther,” which was presented to Roosevelt by his “Tennis Cabinet” at the luncheon.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-03-01

John A. Gable begins the “Book Notes” column with a review of Sylvia Jukes Morris’s biography Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady. In doing so, he provides a shorter, but still complete examination of Roosevelt’s life, and highlights the research Morris did utilizing letters, Roosevelt’s diary, and interviews.

Three pictures of Edith Roosevelt are included in the review: one considered the favorite of her husband, Theodore Roosevelt; a drawing by John Singer Sargent; and a third of Edith Roosevelt with Lou Henry Hoover, the wife of Herbert Hoover.

In Gable’s following review of Frederick W. Mark’s Velvet on Iron: The Diplomacy of Theodore Roosevelt, Gable places the work in the context of other studies of Roosevelt and argues that it represents a further step in an ongoing reappraisal of Roosevelt. He quotes extensively from Marks and from Edmund Morris’s review of the work.

A picture of Roosevelt at his desk at Sagamore Hill accompanies the review.

President Roosevelt leads a group on horseback, brandishing a whip and charging. Following him are several figures from history and legend including a Roman warrior, the drunken Tam O’Shanter, Paul Revere, Don Quixote, and Sancho Panza. Also following the charge, in silhouette, are Ichabod Crane from Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a member of the Pony Express, and Lady Godiva. All the riders except Roosevelt are weary or exhausted.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The context of this illustration of a poem in Puck Magazine was the famous horseback ride of President Roosevelt in the last months of his presidency. Convinced that the leadership ranks of the United States Army were too “soft,” he demonstrated the sort of mettle he considered a minimum requirement for men in uniform. On the night of January 13, 1909, the 50-year-old president and three aides — his Military Aide Captain Archibald Butt; Naval Surgeon General Presley M Rixey; and Dr. Cary Grayson, Naval Surgeon —  rode on horseback to and from Warrenton, Farquier County, Virgina. They made the trip in record time, through storms of sleet and ice, much of the ride in the dark. They stopped for 10-minute “rests” and change of horses, except in Warrenton where they stopped for a full meal. Roosevelt made his point — a Rough Ride, certainly — and arrived at the White House about 4:00 the next morning, alone, covered in ice, and ready for a full breakfast and a day of work.