Your TR Source
A group of bears huddle around a fire, looking into the woods, from which a number of pince-nez eyeglasses watch them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905
A frightened man lies in bed, pulling up a blanket labeled “The Senate.” He sees in the darkness the spectacles and toothy grin of President Roosevelt. There is a glowing lamp on a table in the foreground.
Cartoonist J. S. Pughe’s depiction of a cowering Senate beset by harrowing visions of a ghostly President Roosevelt runs contrary to recent Puck cartoons that depicted the Senate and its ancient titans as significant opponents to the administration’s reform agenda.
Theodore Roosevelt thanks D. Chambers & Son for the glasses and mentions his latest victories.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-05-31
Frank Harper, on behalf of Theodore Roosevelt, declines optician George Mayerle’s offer to make Roosevelt a pair of eyeglasses.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-16
President Roosevelt asks Frederick Courteney Selous about outfitting his upcoming African Safari, including what types of jams and other preserved food to bring; what types of tents and camping equipment is best; and what kind of camp cooking equipment is required. Roosevelt asks if he will need colored glasses or a helmet, and which of these items should be sent from the United States, and which from England. Roosevelt supposes that anything he forgets can be acquired at Nairobi or Mombasa.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-07-21
President Roosevelt is glad Archie has gotten new glasses and hopes they will help his headaches. Roosevelt offers his observations on local squirrels, a pet dog, and the recent high spirits of Audrey the horse. He also updates Archie on family life, writing that Ethel Roosevelt is still recovering from surgery and that Quentin Roosevelt never brings his friends home to the White House.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-11-03
President Roosevelt is very concerned about the letter that Dr. Morgan wrote Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt about his son Ted’s eyes. It seems that Ted has not been wearing his corrective glasses and that now surgery will be necessary. Roosevelt urges his son to take care of his eyes and to wear his glasses and see the doctor. He instructs him to see the doctor at once and then to let his parents know both about his eyes and about how his studies are going.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-04
President Roosevelt thanks Emma Gradsden Drayton for remembering him and will prize the glasses.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-03-30
The War Department has decided that Mr. Aikin’s shortsightedness is correctable with glasses and that he can be admitted. President Roosevelt asks William Lorimer to inform Mr. Conway of the news.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-06-13
Robert A. Thompson sends Theodore Roosevelt some “Oregon made” glasses, in the hope that when he visits Portland on his upcoming trip he will “see the city as [he] never saw it before.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-23
Harry W. Schlosberg offers to fit Theodore Roosevelt with a pair of glasses while he is visiting Fort Worth, Texax.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-14
George Mayerle again offers to make Theodore Roosevelt a pair of eyeglasses.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-27
Edward North Buxton discusses the supplies President Roosevelt will need on his upcoming safari. These items include rifles, cartridges, hats, nailed boots, and hunting glasses.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-08
Anna Roosevelt Cowles thanks President Roosevelt for his previous letter and tells him that Theodore Douglas Robinson had a horrid time the day before because it rained all day and his glasses were blurry.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-01
English ophthalmologist Stephen Smith writes to President Roosevelt to offer his medical services to Roosevelt and his family. Smith is training doctors in the United States, including Dr. Wells Woodward, and says that he can treat patients who wears spectacles so that they no longer need them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-05-30
Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy, Presley Rixey, writes to Secretary to the President, William Loeb, and advises that he does not know Dr. Wells Howard, but does not recommend trying out Steven Smith’s new treatments until they are evaluated further. He agrees that it would be a “great boon” if eyeglasses were unnecessary.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-02
Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from January 1871 to December 1878. Notable events include the Roosevelt family’s trip to Europe and Egypt, Roosevelt’s entrance to Harvard, the death of Theodore “Thee” Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s trip to Maine, and Roosevelt meeting Alice Hathaway Lee.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
1985
Susan Sarna recounts the formation of a young Theodore Roosevelt as a naturalist, highlighting his enjoyment of books by Mayne Reid, his first gun, and the revelation he experienced when he was fitted for eyeglasses. Sarna notes Roosevelt’s taxidermy work and his overseas trip of 1872-1873 which gave him field experience in preparing bird skins. Photographs of Roosevelt’s first gun, examples of Reid’s books, two birds mounted by Roosevelt, and an excerpt from a bird guide accompany the text.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
2019
Milton Bruce Shields and Louis Victor Priebe examine the topic of Theodore Roosevelt’s vision and how his myopia, or nearsightedness, affected his life from his inability to see clearly as a youth to his stockpiling eyeglasses before his service in Cuba and his safari in Africa. Shields and Priebe also discuss the injury to Roosevelt’s left eye suffered during a boxing match with an Army officer, and they speculate on whether the injury resulted from a detached retina or a cataract. Shields and Priebe also consider how Roosevelt’s vision may have determined other aspects of his life and personality from his heightened sense of hearing to his love of books and reading.
Four photographs supplement the text, including two of 1904 campaign buttons in the shape of pince-nez glasses.
A charcoal drawing entitled “Theodore’s Glasses” by Hilary Yarrington which appears on the back cover of the catalog for the exhibition Theodore at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1984