Eliot, Charles William, 1834-1926

David McCullough looks at the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and his father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. He notes the elder Roosevelt’s important role in establishing the American Museum of Natural History, and he outlines differences between the two, notably the elder’s robust health and the many childhood ailments of the younger Roosevelt. McCullough examines the younger Roosevelt’s time at Harvard, especially his interest in natural science, and he establishes that he led a life of privilege unknown to most Americans. 

Two pictures, one of each Roosevelt, accompany the article.

Harvard University recently held a symposium on May 9, 1980 to mark the one hundred year anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt’s graduation from Harvard. The article notes the order of the proceedings and it provides brief background information on each of the three speakers–Barbara Tuchman, David McCullough and Edmund Morris–and lists their books and literary awards. A listing of some of the attendees from Harvard, the Roosevelt family, and the Theodore Roosevelt Association concludes the article.

A photograph of Tuchman, McCullough, Morris, and Harvard librarian Douglas W. Bryant is found on the first page of the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

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.

Barbara W. Tuchman examines Theodore Roosevelt’s thoughts on, and conduct of, foreign policy during the Spanish-American War and during his presidency. She shows both the belligerent and diplomatic sides of his nature by looking at his handling of the Perdicaris-Raisuli affair in 1904 and his relationship with Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Tuchman also compares Roosevelt’s views with those of the long-time president of Harvard, Charles W. Eliot.

The invitation to the symposium at Harvard featuring Tuchman is reproduced on the second page of her article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

David McCullough looks at the relationship between Theodore Roosevelt and his father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. He notes the elder Roosevelt’s important role in establishing the American Museum of Natural History, and he outlines differences between the two, notably the elder’s robust health and the many childhood ailments of the younger Roosevelt. McCullough examines the younger Roosevelt’s time at Harvard, especially his interest in natural science, and he establishes that he led a life of privilege unknown to most Americans.

Two pictures, one of each Roosevelt, accompany the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

In this chapter excerpt from his book John Muir and His Legacy: The American Conservation Movement, Stephen Fox examines efforts to expand Yosemite National Park, the battle between preservationists and conservationists over the use of forests, and provides portraits of John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, John Burroughs, and Theodore Roosevelt. He looks at the work undertaken by the conservation movement to preserve Niagara Falls, the redwood forests of California, and Mount Desert Island in Maine. Fox concludes the chapter with a look at the battle over the city of San Francisco’s desire to build a dam at the southern end of Hetch Hetchy valley in Yosemite National Park. In addition to looking at the life and work of Muir, the chapter provides information on many lesser known figures in the turn of the twentieth-century conservation movement.

A listing of the officers and the members of the executive, finance, and Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace committees of the Theodore Roosevelt Association is found on the second page of the excerpt.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Wallace Finley Dailey, Curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard University, describes in detail two exhibits of Theodore Roosevelt material on display in the Theodore Roosevelt Gallery in the Nathan Marsh Pusey Library in 1977. One exhibit covers Roosevelt’s long relationship with Harvard University from his undergraduate student years to his death. The other explores Roosevelt’s relationship with his daughter Ethel Roosevelt Derby. In both exhibit summaries, Dailey quotes extensively from Roosevelt’s letters and speeches and provides descriptions of the photographs used in the exhibits. 

Three photographs and one illustration accompany the article. One photograph shows Dailey examining the exhibit display cases. Another shows Roosevelt with a group of his Harvard classmates, and one shows Derby at the White House in 1902. The illustration is a drawing by Roosevelt’s classmate, Charles G. Washburn, that depicts a monument detailing Roosevelt’s many activities at Harvard. 

D. G. Lyon reports to the committee appointed by the Harvard Board of Overseers on the happenings of the Semitic Museum and Division of Semitic Languages and History covering the years 1905 to 1910. He includes updates on professor transfers, available courses, new museum collections, and archaeological digs. Jacob H. Schiff provides a preface to the report.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-21

An invitation to a reception and banquet sponsored by the Harvard Forest School in conjunction with the Massachusetts Wholesale Lumber Association and the Lumber Trade Club of Boston.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01

President Roosevelt has enclosed a copy of the letter that he sent J. D. White in order for Ted Roosevelt to make plans with him. Ted Roosevelt can “pilot” Roosevelt around the Harvard Union. Roosevelt will not talk about Harvard president Charles William Eliot, and will accept that some of what he says will leak, but asks that reporters not be present.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-11

An article in the Harvard Graduates’ Magazine calls for a break in athletic competition between Harvard and Yale, asserting that Yale focuses too much on athletics and not enough on academics.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-28

List of unknown origin titled “American Members of the League for International Conciliation,” enclosed with a letter created by Nobel Prize winner Nicholas Murray Butler. Andrew Carnegie and Andrew D. White are listed as “Honorary Presidents,” 12 people are listed under “Council of Direction,” and 46 people are listed as “Members.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-05

Oscar S. Straus gives an address at the University of Georgia tracing the development of religious liberty in the United States. Beginning with the founding of several American Colonies, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, Straus examines how many of the colonies dealt with religious freedom, or lack thereof, and how as the United States has developed as a nation it has set forth the law that no religion or sect of religion is above any other, and that the laws apply to all equally.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-05-13

Resident members of the Harvard Club of New York are invited to subscribe to a fund for the benefit of the recently resigned president of Harvard University Charles William Eliot and his wife, Grace M. H. Eliot. The fund will go to the Eliots for the duration of their lives, and afterwards will be given to Harvard University. As a member of the class of 1880, the recipient is requested to send their check to Richard Welling.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-18

Charles W. Watson shares his opinion concerning independence for the Philippines.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-04-29

Henry Lee Higginson comments on mailing copies of the address to Harvard’s president Charles W. Eliot.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-01

Theodore Roosevelt writes to Henry Cabot Lodge and his wife, Nannie, in pencil, because he is far out in the African wilderness. Roosevelt discusses Lodge’s response to the tariff question and shares his own thoughts on the constitutional amendment about the income tax. Roosevelt agrees with William Loeb and Lodge on the mayoralty issue. On his trip, Roosevelt has gained a passion for William Shakespeare’s plays, news that will be of interest to Nannie. Roosevelt shares the highlights of his big game hunting in Africa, as well as other books he has been reading.

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1909-09-10

Criminals on the left enter a prison labeled “Penitentiary” with a statue of “Justice.” On the right, they leave the prison after serving their sentences and are given papers labeled “Freedom,” where they are confronted by a large hand above a city with a wall labeled “Ex-Convicts Not Wanted.” Includes text about the failure of the Penal System.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-10-20

Theodore Roosevelt compliments Robert Grant on his recent publications and contrasts them to the works of other “intellectual leaders”. Roosevelt also expresses dissatisfaction with The Saturday Evening Post and The New Republic magazines.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1916-10-03

Theodore Roosevelt believes Commander of the USS San Francisco Belknap’s article should be published in The Outlook but advises him to send it directly himself and not ask Roosevelt to submit it for him. He agrees with Belknap about the “silliness” of a remark by Harvard president Charles William Eliot regarding the need to break a man’s will, to train him as a soldier.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1915-10-27