Your TR Source
Lowell Parker addresses common misconceptions of the Spanish-American War and clarifies the involvement of William Owen “Bucky” O’Neill and other army volunteers in the conflict, including African American troops and the Rough Riders.
1978-01-23
Postcard showing cows in a wooden corral with three men working on a tied-down cow, one is holding a branding iron. A man on horseback in the background. Charles C. Myers notes that the men are branding cattle in Punta Arenas, Chile.
In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Branding cattle on one of the ranches near the city.”
Charles C. Myers Collection
Duane G. Jundt finds flaws and strengths in two books that chronicle Theodore Roosevelt’s time in the Dakota Badlands. Jundt notes that Michael F. Blake’s The Cowboy President: The American West and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt lacks historical objectivity and contains numerous factual errors while Christopher Knowlton’s Cattle Kingdom: The Hidden History of the Cowboy West places Roosevelt and his ranching experience in the wider context of the American West. Jundt highlights both books’ treatment of Owen Wister’s 1902 novel The Virginian. Jundt also examines certain aspects of these books against works by other Roosevelt biographers, and he asserts that both books emphasize the importance of Roosevelt’s time in Dakota to developing his conservation conscience.
The front cover illustrations for both works under review and a postcard of a cattle branding scene accompany the text.
The Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal presents a 1905 booklet, Theodore Roosevelt, written by the French scholar Leon Bazalgette and translated by Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris. Bazalgette composed the booklet as an “examination of the works of Theodore Roosevelt,” and he divides Roosevelt’s books into three categories: history, politics, and nature. Bazalgette examines numerous works in each category, and he explains how the books and writings reflect the thoughts and beliefs of Roosevelt. Bazalgette asserts that Roosevelt’s time in the West as a cowboy was the most important period of his life, and he admits that he likes Roosevelt’s writings from and about this period and place the best. Bazalgette quotes extensively from Roosevelt’s western trilogy, and he highlights passages Roosevelt wrote about bird songs.
The translation of the booklet is followed by a brief biography of Bazalgette written by Morris, along with a list of Roosevelt books cited by Bazalgette. Two text boxes at the conclusion of the work list the mission and vision statements of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) along with a listing of its social media platforms.
Advertisement for a Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) “Strenuous Life Adventure” tour to South Dakota, Wyoming, and North Dakota to see sites associated with Theodore Roosevelt’s time in the West. The ad describes the trip, lists the tour guides, notes the costs, and provides contact information. The advertisement features photographs of Roosevelt and Devils Tower National Monument, along other icons of the West such as cowboy hat and rope.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
2017
Theodore Roosevelt poses dressed in ranch gear including chaps, a fringed shirt, boots and hat with a pistol and holster belt on his waist.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1885
President Roosevelt shakes hands with the “official Republican campaign uniform” that looks the attire of a cowboy.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-18
President Roosevelt sits in a chair as three cowboys ride horses behind him, each one carrying a lasso with a different word. The first reads, “we want,” the second reads, “Teddy,” and the third reads, “another term.”
Life Magazine’s cover cartoon by William Henry Walker took its title from the recent best-seller by Jack London — the author’s most popular novel. Not a “nature faking” book as Roosevelt then criticized, it told the plausible story of Buck, a dog in the Yukon.
The president’s “call” in Walker’s cartoon was the siren-song of politicians, the public, and the press, for Roosevelt to consider his announcement of election night, November, 1904 — that he would not seek or accept a presidential nomination in 1908. He referred to George Washington’s “wise custom”; and, at barely 40 years old, he sensed he would have the wanderlust when that term ended.
President Roosevelt walks quickly following a sign that reads “to the rough riders’ reunion!!!” while Admiral Lucien Young, William Loeb, “representatives of the press,” and “reception committee of prominent citizens” struggle to keep up. To Roosevelt’s left is the “Alamo” and four cowboys who fire their revolvers. An “official photographer” tries to capture a picture. Caption: He arrives in “San Antone.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-04-06
Theodore Roosevelt writes of the American Western frontier and his experiences there, along with some of the stories he heard about the lawless days of the area. The article includes drawings by Frederic Remington.
Denver Public Library
1893-06
Theodore Roosevelt’s prospects for success in Arizona are improving.
1912-11-02
President Roosevelt attends a cowboy breakfast at Hugo, Colorado, serving himself food from a kettle on the ground. He is surrounded by men in cowboy hats.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1903
“Cowboys off the Trail” is displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1904
“Cowboys off the Trail” is displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1904
A statue depicting cowboys shooting up the town is displayed at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1904
This stereograph shows a large sculpture of a cowboy and a horse at the gondola landing of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1904
Theodore Roosevelt, astride a horse with “Wyoming” on its bridle, leads a number of lassoed cattle behind him, each with the name of a state on it. One cow, with Alabama written on it, rises up and says, “I don’t see how I can get out of this.” A teddy bear holding a bag walks alongside Roosevelt. This cartoon is likely a reference to Theodore Roosevelt’s massive success in the 1904 presidential election, which saw him capture the electoral votes of the Northern and Western states, leading to his second term as president.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1904
President Taft, as a cowboy, sits alone next to a campfire and a chuck wagon labeled “Stand-Pat or Bust.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-05-18
Print shows an American cowboy talking to a British nobleman who is standing on papers labeled “Brutality, Vulgarity, Insolence, Arrogance, Selfishness, [and] Boorishness”, with an “Invitation N. Pacific R.R. Opening – Villard” extending from a pocket. In the background is a railroad car labeled “Parlor Car Villard Excursion.” Caption: American Cowboy to British Nobleman (Villard Variety) “Methinks, thou art my mirror!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1883-10-10
Woodrow Wilson as a cowboy holds a rope to lasso a bucking horse labeled “Congress,” which has thrown lame duck president William H. Taft, who sits on the ground in tattered clothing. Next to Taft is a letter that states, “Dear William, Come over and have a seat in my Kent Chair of Law. Yours- Yale.” Caption: The Tenderfoot–Ride the beast if you want to. I’m through. Me for a more restful seat!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-02-26