Your TR Source
Speech written by George Washington Emery Dorsey honoring Theodore Roosevelt, his favorite president and the ideal American. Dorsey says there are few truly great men, one is Abraham Lincoln, another is Roosevelt. The world is brighter and better because they have lived and they will stand forever, marking the glorious Republic.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-04
Elizabeth Moore Young Newton tells Theodore Roosevelt that the little boy who was staying with her, Frank M. Redman, when Roosevelt last visited Fargo, North Dakota, was so excited to be able to shake hands with Roosevelt. Redman is now living in Spokane, Washington with his father and Newton asks Roosevelt to send Redman an autograph.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-27
William N. Freeman thanks Frank Harper for his letter. He discusses a possible daily school exercise of a flag honor guard. He recalls a movement to assign a generic name to American soldiers, as British soldiers are called “Tommy Atkins”. He suggests “Johnny Trump”, and hopes that Roosevelt can endorse the idea. He would like to meet Roosevelt and give him a handshake.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-20
Mario S. Geigel recalls shaking Theodore Roosevelt’s hand in Puerto Rico and always reads his writing in The Outlook. He would like to meet with Roosevelt and discuss American citizenship for Puerto Ricans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-15
President Theodore Roosevelt shaking hands with the engineer after making a train journey.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1901-1908
Puck reaches from the Puck Building to the White House to congratulate Theodore Roosevelt for winning the presidential election. They are shaking hands.
Udo J. Keppler, of all the cartoonists who were nominal opponents of Theodore Roosevelt (the cartoon weekly Puck, founded by his father, was usually a reliable Democratic journal) probably drew the highest percentage of complimentary caricatures of any of his contemporaries. An affection might have been prompted by Roosevelt’s association with the West and his conservation policies; at the end of Keppler’s life was active in the American West, including promoting Indian causes.
Politicians Henry Gassaway Davis, William Jennings Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles W. Fairbanks, Thomas Collier Platt, and Alton B. Parker shake hands with farmers outside a tent labeled “The New Farmers’ Alliance.” Caption: Find the real farmers.
At first glance, this cartoon by J. S. Pughe can be viewed as a prosaic view of campaign-season politicians seeking the voters of farmers and the agrarian class. It is what politicians do, reaching out to all segments of the voting public. A chuckle can be raised by the depiction of politicians, even those in top hats, wearing farmers’ boots, trousers, and chore coats.
President Roosevelt and Judge Alton Brooks Parker meet as boxers in a boxing ring, shaking hands before the start of the match. Uncle Sam, as the referee, stands in the background.
With the dust settled from President Roosevelt’s active administration after William McKinley’s assassination, Democratic Party wrangling between factions favoring and opposing William Jennings Bryan — by mid-summer 1904, the rival presidential candidates were chosen, and the campaign could begin.
An American yachtsman shakes hands with Thomas Johnstone Lipton, with the America’s Cup between them. Caption: The American Sportsman — If we can not keep both, we would rather lose the cup than lose you, Sir Thomas.
Sir Thomas Lipton, a Scotsman of Irish parentage, was an entrepreneurial whirlwind, with a product line of teas, grocery stores, and racing yachts his primary interests. He frequently entered his yachts in America’s Cup races, never to win, but he endeared himself to the American public. In 1903 his entry was named The Shamrock, hence the design of his vest. The “American Sportsman” in Keppler’s cartoon appears to be a generic fellow.
President Roosevelt sits at a desk that is overwhelmed with papers requiring his immediate attention. Reaching through the stacks of paper is a large hand labeled “Public Receptions.” Caption: How long shall the senseless hand-shaking custom take our busiest citizen from his real duties?
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1902-02-05
Quentin Roosevelt writes a short commentary on the tradition of hand shaking at Groton School and the sincerity of the practice.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
Unknown
Thomas W. Lawson, with his America’s Cup entry “Independence,” and Nathanael G. Herreshoff with his America’s Cup entry “Constitution,” console each other after their yachts initially were denied entry in the America’s Cup challenge in 1901.
Thomas W. Lawson was a wealthy American financier born into poverty and, ironically, lived in poverty when he died. One of his passions was yacht racing. He balked at the requirement to join the New York Yacht Club in order to race his yacht “Independence” in the 1901 America’s Cup. Several years after this cartoon, the rebellious Lawson wrote a series of magazine articles, “Frenzied Finance,” discussing corruption among the business class “from the inside,” and became one of the early Muckrakers. This cartoon is a snapshot in time: Nathaniel Greene Herreshoff built the yacht “Constitution” for J. P. Morgan. It encountered initial problems in registering for the race, but eventually the “Constitution” was ratified, raced, and won the America’s Cup in 1901, the second cup for a boat designed and built by Herreshoff.
Theodore Roosevelt greets guests in “Wildwood Gulch” at a reception in his honor. Roosevelt crosses his arms behind his back, and a “hand shaker” device stands in front of him (“patent applied for”), offering a fake arm with which the people may shake hands. Caption: It is announced that the President will omit handshaking during his western tour.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-07-01
Theodore Roosevelt thanks Thomas James Lacey for his letter and wishes he could have shaken hands with Lacey’s mother.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-05-31
Theodore Roosevelt was “much interested” in what Reverend Swift wrote but is too busy to respond personally. If Swift ever visits the United States, it would give Roosevelt “great pleasure” to shake his hand.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-04-01
Responding to a request to greet Theodore Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s secretary suggests that Clara Brandt might stop at The Outlook office some Friday when she is in town.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-06-21
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary informs Reverend John A. Rush that Roosevelt will gladly shake his hand while in Atlanta, Georgia.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-28
George E. Spring regrets he cannot shake Theodore Roosevelt’s hand today.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-07-26
Jesse W. Battershall sends Theodore Roosevelt a clipping on the Attleboro students’ visit to Washington, D.C. He asks if Roosevelt would meet with the students upon their return to New York City on May 4.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-24
George T. Blair introduces himself as one of the first men Theodore Roosevelt hired as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He wants to shake hands one more time while Roosevelt is in Spokane, Washington.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-09