Your TR Source
Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from October 1858 to December 1870. Notable events include the Roosevelt family’s involvement in the American Civil War, Theodore Roosevelt meeting John Hay as a child, and the Roosevelt family’s first European trip.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
1985
George W. Toomey describes spring as a time of resurrection, the most important being that of Jesus Christ. Toomey invites readers to find inspiration in the celebration of Easter.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04
On behalf of her and her sister Louisa Lee Schuyler, Georgina Schuyler sends Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt Easter greetings. She looks forward to Roosevelt’s speech on behalf of the Berry School. She sends a pamphlet she wrote about preserving the old Schuyler Mansion, the purchase of which was approved by Governor John A. Dix.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-16
President Roosevelt watches from the White House as New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes, Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks, Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon, Leslie M. Shaw, Secretary of State Elihu Root, former Secretary of the Treasury Philander C. Knox, watch Secretary of State William H. Taft and Senator Joseph Benson Foraker roll two eggs — “Taft boom” and “Foraker boom”on the White House lawn.
As Easter approached in 1907, cartoonists like Clifford Kennedy Berryman of the Washington Evening Star found another opportunity to sail to deadline with a ready-made premise for the topic of the day — who would succeed President Roosevelt? Boys + White House + rivalry = easy variation-on-theme.
Edna Kuhuert thanks cousin Elsie Kuhuert for the Easter card she sent. Edna starts school next week and “papa is busy seeding now days.” It appears Albert wrote the message and Edna added her signature. On the postcard front, a well dressed bear walks in the door to find a female bear sweeping alongside the caption “Busy bears -Thursday.”
1910-04-12
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt sends love and Easter greetings to John Campbell Greenway from the Roosevelt family.
1900-03
Psyche wears an Easter bonnet and admires her reflection in a small pool of water with irises and lilies.
The back-story of Puck‘s Easter Issue’s cover is related to its year, 1909. The artist, Gordon Grant, was Puck‘s answer to Life Magazine’s Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the glamorous Gibson Girl. As “American Girls” began gracing the covers of virtually every magazine of every category at the time — drawn or painted by the likes of Gibson and Grant; James Montgomery Flagg; Coles Phillips; Howard Chandler Christy; C. Jay Taylor; Penrhyn Stanlaws; and others — Puck even got a little saucy with an Easter theme.
But Grant did not seek to titillate with a scantily-clad maiden. The obligatory humorous touch was an Easter bonnet on a wood nymph. But the context of the pose and woman herself was a famous painting whose popularity swept popular culture in nearly every aspect. Like the semi-scandalous September Morn two years later would create a sensation, the canvas by the German Academician Paul Thumann (1834-1908) had first been exhibited at the 1893 Columbian Exposition (World’s fair) in Chicago and was ubiquitous in prints, posters, cards, and on calendars. The original title addressed the Greek goddess, Psyche at Nature’s Mirror.
A group of well-dressed people greets the sun at Easter. On the right, an old woman carrying a sack labeled “Hard Times” is overshadowed and forgotten.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-03-21
A small chick labeled “Prosperity” has emerged from a large egg labeled “Easter 1897.” A rooster labeled “Rep. Party” is crowing in the background and a hen with the head of President McKinley is strutting on the right. Caption: It is pretty small yet – but it is bound to grow.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-04-21
A large Easter bonnet casts shade over a small eclectic group of individuals.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-04-21
Puck holds a mirror for a fashionably dressed young woman trying on an Easter bonnet. They are standing among several hat boxes, some showing bonnets.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898-04-13
An elderly woman wearing late 19th century clothing labeled “Fashion” gestures toward an “Easter Bonnet” atop a maypole around which many other women have gathered. A smartly-dressed young woman labeled “New Woman” refuses to participate.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-04-08
A man and a woman stand on a hilltop observing dark clouds composed of empty religious vestments, bunnies, and chicks drifting across the sky. The clouds partially obscure a disk (the Eucharistic bread and/or sun) labeled “Easter’s Religious Significance” showing a cross and a crown of thorns.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-03-23
A bright red devil hides in a garden of white Easter lilies.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1910-03-23
A female figure labeled “Europe” sleeps among boxes of “Munitions of War [and] Ammunition,” large shells, and a barrel of “Powder” with a candle labeled “Ambition” as a burning fuse. She is dreaming about “The Czar’s Proposal for a Universal Peace Congress.” Her dream shows an angel holding up a banner labeled “Millennium” around which are dancing the symbolic representations of several countries. Among them are a fox, a turkey wearing a fez, a double-headed eagle labeled “Austria,” a cock labeled “France,” an eagle labeled “Germany,” the British Lion, the Russian Bear labeled “Russia,” a fox labeled “Italy,” a cat labeled “Spain,” and a dragon labeled “China.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1899-04-05
Print shows a young messenger boy asking a fashionably dressed young woman to sign for the delivery of her Easter bonnet.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1899-04-05
A well dressed man holding a “Hymn” book stands between two young women dressed as devils.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-03-12
Black and white cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt putting on a hat piled with armaments.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1907-03-20
Theodore Roosevelt will miss Martha Bulloch Roosevelt but is glad that she will be staying down south for a while longer. The weather for Easter was beautiful, but Roosevelt was unable to go shooting with Fred Osborn on Good Friday due to a bad cold. Roosevelt’s dance classes are going well, and the new coachman, Fox, is a good employee.
1875-03-28
A well-dressed man carries his wife’s Easter bonnet beneath an umbrella, so that in her absence, due to an illness, at least her bonnet will be seen in public. Caption: His wife was ill.
Cartoonist L. M. Glackens had the assignment to draw the cover for Puck‘s holiday issue (special numbers usually were arranged for Easter, Mid-Summer, Thanksgiving, and Christmas) in 1908. As he matured as an artist, his handsome work was ever more evident in Puck; and the young Welshman J. S. Pughe was ill throughout the year, reducing his own workload.
The idea of a man parading his wife’s Easter bonnet in a rainstorm is funny yet today, even if traditional Easter parades are no longer conducted. The border motif seems strange — a devil chasing a cowl-clad brother — perhaps more appropriate before lent. However, Easter Sunday in 1908 fell on April 19, days after this issue’s cover date.