Your TR Source
President Roosevelt remarks that “it is not always that the Porcellian Club is interested in the same things I am interested in politically,” and so particularly appreciates the note from John W. Wood.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-06-12
President Roosevelt thanks Harvard Dean Edgar Huidekoper Wells for taking an interest in his son Ted’s education, but feels that the standards that Wells has set out in a recent letter “put an altogether impossible ideal before him.” Roosevelt feels that he cannot ask his son to do more than he himself did, and explains how he found himself ranked at Harvard. Roosevelt hopes that Ted will be able to join the Porcellian club, and that he will do some philanthropic work while at Harvard.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-20
President Roosevelt tells Harvard Dean Edgar Huidekoper Wells that he is glad his son, Theodore Roosevelt, is off academic probation, but feels that Ted’s grades are still not anything to boast about. He promises to emphasize to Ted “that he stood on the ragged edge,” and needs to show he is in earnest through his studies and attendance at Harvard. Roosevelt wishes Wells could have been present at the meeting of the Porcellian Club at the White House after his the wedding of his daughter, Alice Longworth.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-12
President Roosevelt is impressed that Winthrop Chanler is able to keep up with so much reading, and was surprised to learn of his interest in Irish sagas. Roosevelt would have liked to have helped Charles Carroll, a member of the Porcellian club, but Frederick, W. Whitridge has already chosen his secretaries. He wishes that Chanler could have been present at Alice Roosevelt Longworth’s wedding, and comments that by the end of it there was a meeting of all the Porcellian brothers who attended, with at least forty attendees. He is glad that Chanler’s family has been having a good time abroad, and comments that he would likely enjoy hunting in Meath, Ireland, but would need some time to get into condition. He hopes to see Chanler when he returns to the United States.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-04
President Roosevelt asks Henry Bainbridge Chapin to find out what would suit the plans of the Porcellain Club people. He wants to visit the Union, but he also does not want to “scamp” both the Union and the Porcellain.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-06-06
President Roosevelt thanks the Porcellian Club as a whole, as well as individual brothers, for their congratulations of his reelection. He informs the Porcellian Club he will attend the next commencement at Harvard University to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the graduation of his class.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-20
President Roosevelt regrets he cannot attend the Porcellian Club’s mid-year supper.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-11-16
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt thanks Marion Carroll for her letter, as he has been attempting to convince her husband, Royal P. Carroll, to stand by his old Porcellian club-mates.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1897-06-07
Edgar Huidekoper Wells was disappointed he could not visit Oyster Bay on Sunday but looks forward to seeing Theodore Roosevelt in Boston, Massachusetts, next month. He congratulates Roosevelt on Kermit Roosevelt’s election to the Porcellian Club.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-06
Winthrop Chanler realizes that he neglected to give President Roosevelt the address for William Stickney, and wishes to correct his mistake. He informs Roosevelt that Stickney is a member of the Porcellian Club, and that if Roosevelt is able to find a position for him, he guarantees that Stickney will be a “sober, steady, reliable man.” Chanler is leaving on a trip the following day, and bids Roosevelt farewell.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-15
William H. Appleton tells Ted Roosevelt that he is glad he made the “P. C.,” likely the Porcellian Club at Harvard. Appleton says he cannot help but treat Roosevelt as a protégé and, although he is glad that Roosevelt made the “P. C.,” he reminds Roosevelt about the Sphinx, which is the club for which Appleton backed him, and also tells him to keep in touch with his friends, be wary of becoming “snobbish,” and “take the right proportion of things.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-28
Edgar Huidekoper Wells congratulates President Roosevelt on the election of his son, Theodore Roosevelt, to Harvard University’s prestigious Porcellian Club.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11-26
Richard M. Saltonstall, President Roosevelt’s classmate at Harvard College, is sending him a Porcellian Club hat ribbon before Roosevelt leaves for vacation at his home in Oyster Bay, New York.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-07-03
Winthrop Chanler writes President Roosevelt about his season spent in Paris and Meath, Ireland. He also discusses the activities of his family and friends in Europe, including members of the Porcellian Club.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-03-22
Western writer Owen Wister sends President Roosevelt his congratulations on the upcoming marriage of Alice Roosevelt to Nicholas Longworth, whom Wister has liked since first meeting him at Harvard’s Porcellian Club. Wister apologizes for not having written sooner, as he was laid up with sickness for a few months and is only just recovering at a resort in Browns Mills, New Jersey. Wister hopes to visit the Roosevelts soon, to discuss Russian Ambassador Vitte, matters in Philadelphia where his wife, Mary Channing Wister, has been active, and the unfortunate passing of their friend, former Rough Rider Woodbury Kane. Wister concludes by wishing the Roosevelts a merry Christmas.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-12-17
Corinne Roosevelt Robinson was delighted to see President Theodore Roosevelt and has much more she wishes to discuss with him. If Roosevelt is seriously considering attending the Army vs. Navy football game, Princeton University’s Ivy Club would gladly entertain him. Robinson thinks it would be lovely if Roosevelt could visit Princeton as he did Harvard and Yale.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-07-17
Morton J. Henry asks Winthrop Chanler to write to Theodore Roosevelt recommending him for a promotion to major in the Army. Chanler writes that Henry, like Roosevelt, belonged to the Porcellian Club when he attended Harvard, and served in the Spanish-American War, adding that Henry “is all right.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-05-10
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
Wallace Finley Dailey, curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard University, recreates an exhibit on Theodore Roosevelt’s involvement with Harvard from his days as a student to his work as an overseer. The exhibit was displayed at Harvard in 1977, 1980, 1996, 2005, and 2012. The exhibit in article form consists of twenty-five photographs, including thirteen of Roosevelt, and numerous documents including letters, certificates, diary and notebook entries, and publications by and about Roosevelt. The accompanying text identifies each photograph and document, noting its source and providing context.
Stacy A. Cordery examines the “shadows and sunshine” of Theodore Roosevelt’s time in Boston while an undergraduate student at Harvard College. Cordery identifies the shadows as the death of Roosevelt’s father, his disenchantment with his natural science major, and his failed courtship of Edith Kermit Carow. The countering sunshine was provided by Roosevelt’s successful pursuit of Alice Hathaway Lee. Cordery looks at each of these episodes, especially the courtship of Carow and Lee, and she argues that these episodes were pivotal to Roosevelt’s life and career.
Four photographs appear in the text, including two of Roosevelt with Lee.