Grinnell, George Bird, 1849-1938

Carl Ethan Akeley asks Theodore Roosevelt for guidance in arranging a meeting of several people involved with the magazine Forest and Stream. At a previous gathering at Charles Sheldon’s house, Roosevelt had left it to Akeley to arrange a visit to Oyster Bay. Akeley has not yet done this because he did not want to be an imposition. He proposes to arrange a luncheon in town with Sheldon, William A. Bruette, George Bird Grinnell, and Alexander Lambert.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1916-04-22

Creator(s)

Akeley, Carl Ethan, 1864-1926

Billy Hofer received Theodore Roosevelt’s note and does not think Roosevelt read his letter about the book. In his travels, he finds people want Roosevelt as president. Hofer is in Seattle, Washington, with his pack outfits.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-11

Creator(s)

Hofer, Billy

Charles A. Eastman, a Sioux author, is working to complete his history of the Sioux from “the Indian standpoint.” He asks Theodore Roosevelt for an endorsement of his work to include in his grant application to the Carnegie Institute at Washington.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-20

Creator(s)

Eastman, Charles A., 1858-1939

William Austin Wadsworth of the Boone and Crockett Club tells President Roosevelt that the club is collecting examples of “American hunting arms, implements and paraphernalia” for an exhibition at the New York Zoological Society. In particular, Wadsworth is interested in collecting American items such as Bowie knives, hunting hatchets, and powder horns. Contributions to the collection should be sent to George Bird Grinnell.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-07-15

Creator(s)

Wadsworth, William Austin, 1847-1918

Charles D. Lanier writes to William Loeb that Albert Shaw has spoken to President Roosevelt about The Country Calandar’s article on Sagamore Hill, and Roosevelt’s “activities there as a country gentleman.” Lanier would like Loeb to ask Roosevelt, if the occasion arises, if he has a choice for the author of this article. Lanier has also arranged for George Bird Grinnell to write a second article on “Theodore Roosevelt as a Sportsman,” and will use photographs from Roosevelt’s recent trip to illustrate this article. Lanier understands that the second article is not to be exclusively on Roosevelt’s recent trip, but on his varied interests as a sportsman.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-05-17

Creator(s)

Lanier, Charles D. (Charles Day), 1868-1945

Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from January 1884 to December 1891. Notable events include the deaths of Alice Lee Roosevelt and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s time on his ranch, the completion of Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s engagement and marriage to Edith Kermit Carow, Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt’s birth, the “Great-Dieup” of cattle in North Dakota, and the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association

Creation Date

1985

Creator(s)

Moore, Robert J. (Robert John), 1956-; Theodore Roosevelt Association

In his review of Darrin Lunde’s The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, a Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History, Lowell E. Baier identifies the two theses that animate the book: that Theodore Roosevelt was a world class museum naturalist and that he was the most important conservationist of his time. Baier provides context for and discusses many of Roosevelt’s encounters with the natural world, and he lists many of the explorers, writers, conservationists, and fellow hunters who shaped his thoughts and actions. Baier praises Lunde for placing Roosevelt’s hunting in the context of his times and for acknowledging that Roosevelt hunted for both sport and science, but he faults Lunde for not recognizing the adrenaline rush of hunting and for not treating Roosevelt’s conservation record as president in greater detail.

The front cover of Lunde’s book, two photographs, and three paintings by John Seerey-Lester populate the review.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Gregory A. Wynn explores the life of American photographer Edward S. Curtis who photographed Theodore Roosevelt’s family in 1904 and 1905. Wynn argues that Curtis’s 1904 portrait “is the single best studio photograph” of Roosevelt. Wynn details Curtis’s decades long struggle to photograph, write, and produce his multi-volume The North American Indian, and he highlights the roles played by Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan in promoting and financing the project. In an addendum to his essay, Wynn notes that the Roosevelt collection of his friend Peter Scanlan came to auction, and he highlights the sale of pieces that have been featured in previous editions of his material culture column. 

Five Curtis photographs supplement the text along with the title page of The North American Indian and illustrations of three items from the Scanlan auction. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2014

Lowell E. Baier describes the importance of Theodore Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch to the formation of Roosevelt’s environmental awareness, and subsequently to the emergence of the nation’s conservation movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Baier provides a brief history of the conservation movement in the United States before Roosevelt’s emergence as its leader, and he argues that the conservation effort stemmed in part from the nation’s desire to preserve parts of its frontier past. Baier quotes Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris in emphasizing the importance of the Elkhorn to Roosevelt’s environmental beliefs, and he highlights efforts to secure the protection of lands directly across the Little Missouri River from the Elkhorn ranch house.

A photograph of Roosevelt with two of his ranch hands and three historic photographs of the Elkhorn Ranch buildings populate the essay along with two contemporary color photographs of the site. The essay also features illustrations of Roosevelt’s cattle brands, sketches of the Elkhorn ranch buildings by Frederic Remington, and a large map showing the various units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and surrounding lands.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2007

John F. Reiger explores the relationships that led to Theodore Roosevelt’s championing the conservation of natural resources as president. Reiger focuses most of his attention on Roosevelt’s friendship with George Bird Grinnell with whom he would found the hunting and conservation group, the Boone and Crockett Club. Reiger also notes the influence of John F. Lacey, Frank M. Chapman, and others, and he describes how Roosevelt in turn would prove to be an inspiration to future leaders in the environmental movement. Reiger examines Roosevelt’s role in preserving Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon, and he asserts that there is no contradiction in Roosevelt espousing both utilitarian and aesthetic conservation.

Two photographs of Roosevelt in Yellowstone National Park in 1903 appear in the essay.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Stephen R. Fox explores the divide in the American conservation movement between camps headed by followers of John Muir and those of Gifford Pinchot. He talks about the popularity of each and of the scholarship that has been produced about each of them. Fox argues that Pinchot “is best understood not as a conservationist but as a politician,” and he examines Pinchot’s autobiography in some detail to support this assertion. Fox argues that Pinchot had presidential aspirations and that he demonstrated little interest in practical forestry matters in his later years, but he also contends that Pinchot remains an important figure in the history of the American conservation movement.

A photograph of Roosevelt and Pinchot appears in the article as does a listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association. A notice that this issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal is dedicated to Jessica Kraft appears on the last page of the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1987

John A. Gable reviews Looking for North: The Harriman Expedition to Alaska, 1899 by William H. Goetzmann and Kay Sloan. Gable focuses on the cast of famous figures, like John Muir and Edward S. Curtis, many of them friends of Theodore Roosevelt, who joined Edward Harriman’s scientific expedition.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1983

Creator(s)

Gable, John A.

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

Creation Date

1981

Responding to a request from President Roosevelt for a report regarding James H. Monteath’s service as an Indian agent, C. Hart Merriam encloses a letter and expresses his deep concern that Monteath and others like him are unfit for such service. Merriam appeals to the president’s sense of “justice and good government” to remove such men. He also expresses concern that George Bird Grinnell’s report regarding the Standing Rock Reservation was suppressed and not published.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-19

Creator(s)

Merriam, C. Hart (Clinton Hart), 1855-1942

Hamlin Garland reports that Frank Mead has been to visit with him and he is pleased with Mead’s progress in dealing with Native Americans. Garland plans to help Mead in any way he can.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-01-22

Creator(s)

Garland, Hamlin, 1860-1940

This letter regards a letter from George Bird Grinnell relating to the suggestion of Frank Mead that the abandoned military reservation of Fort McDowell be turned over to the Mojave Apache Indians.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-09-14

Creator(s)

Hitchcock, Ethan Allen, 1835-1909

George B. Grinnell will travel to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation at the President’s request, although according to George Kennan’s letter, the President’s directions had apparently been lost in the mail.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-05-01

Creator(s)

Kennan, George, 1845-1924

George Kennan sends a telegram to President Roosevelt: “Grinnell has not received your letter but he will go.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-04-30

Creator(s)

Kennan, George, 1845-1924

George Kennan discusses the issue of government land leases with the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Kennan suggests that an outside investigator (George B. Grinnell), not someone from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, be sent to investigate the land leases on the reservation. He mentions an unnamed investigator whose testimony changed when in front of his superior. Kennan also mentions a letter from Mary C. Collins, a missionary, regarding admissions by Agent Bingenheimer that he has had published in the Outlook.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-04-28

Creator(s)

Kennan, George, 1845-1924

A. J. Woodcock praises President Roosevelt’s writings about the West and his embodiment of “the strenuous life.” He presents an old Roman coin that Woodcock’s father obtained in Catania, Sicily, as a “souvenir of the regard of the sportsmen of America for you, their chief.” Woodcock noticed with interest the recent visit of Chief White Calf and the Blackfeet Indian delegation to the Capitol.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-02-07

Creator(s)

Woodcock, A. J. (Albert J.), 1857-1927