Heraldry

Postcard featuring an illustration of the reading of the Declaration of Independence from the balcony of the Old State House on July 18, 1776 in Boston, Massachusetts. A crowd of people listens to the reading from the square in front of the building. Heraldic symbols of the lion and the unicorn, representing the United Kingdom, are depicted on top of the Old State House.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “A few blocks to the north of the Old South Church is the Old State House. Here is a view, the Reading of the Declaration of Independence from the east balcony of the old State House July 18th 1776. The lion, Unicorn, Kings Arms and all vestiges of Rayalty [sic] were taken down and burned in the St.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Postcard commemorating the coronation of King George V. The postcard features a photograph of King George V surrounded by a semi-circle of stereotyped individuals and flags from Great Britain and their colonies. On the right side of the postcard, a list of important dates in the life of King George V and the Royal Coat of Arms are featured. Charles C. Myers notes the U.S.S. Delaware was the only ship to be in England at the time of the coronation, and the men from the ship were treated well. Myers also notes the cost of a penny stamp compared to a stamp in the United States.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “This is a souvenir card that the English people gave to the visitors from foreign countries during the coronation days of King George.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Theodore Roosevelt’s bookplate features the Roosevelt coat of arms, along with his family motto.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1990

Creator(s)

Unknown

This first installment of “The Roosevelt Family in America: A Genealogy” includes part one of the genealogy as well as a foreword by John A. Gable and an introduction by its authors, the genealogists Timothy F. Beard and Henry B. Hoff. Part one of the genealogy runs from Claes Martenszen Van Rosenvelt, considered the first Roosevelt to come to America, to John Ellis Roosevelt, born in 1853, and includes sixty-six entries featuring brief biographical portraits of each entrant, along with their birth and death dates, and a listing of their children.

Part one of the genealogy also includes in this order: a two page listing of abbreviations used in the genealogy; a text box with brief biographies of Beard and Hoff; a listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA); a brief history of the TRA in a text box; an illustration of the Roosevelt family coat of arms; and a table showing the descendants of the Oyster Bay and Hyde Park, New York, Roosevelt families.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

The “News and Notes” column describes John A. Gable’s teaching a course for the Roosevelt Study Center in the Netherlands in July, 1988, and it also notes two of his other speaking engagements about Theodore Roosevelt. The column features an obituary for Franklin D. Roosevelt, Junior, son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who supported the work of the Roosevelt Study Center. “News and Notes” promotes new publications on Theodore Roosevelt, including the publication of past issues of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal in microfiche form by the Meckler corporation, and it lists some other sources for studying the life and work of Robert Barnwell Roosevelt. The use of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site as a voter registration site is also discussed.

Illustrations of the Roosevelt family coat of arms and both sides of the Theodore Roosevelt Association medallion appear in the column.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

The front cover of this issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal features the seal designed for the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. The seal features a profile illustration of Theodore Roosevelt, his initials, two roses, his birth date, the Roosevelt family motto, and a drawing of the carrier. A photograph of the ship underway appears on the back cover.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1986

Article on the design of the seal for USS Theodore Roosevelt which appears on the cover of this issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. The article notes seven different aspects of the seal’s design, and talks about its conception and approval by members of the ship’s crew and the Ship Sponsor and Matron of Honor. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1986

William Davison Johnston, President of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA), opens this lengthy and crowded edition of the “News and Notes” section by praising the documentary “The Indomitable Teddy Roosevelt,” noting the opening of the Roosevelt Study Center in the Netherlands, and discussing the role of the TRA in the commissioning of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. The section covers the conferring of two awards sponsored by the TRA: the TRA Police Award and the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize. Officer Vivian F. Picciarelli won the Police Award for 1986 and was the first woman to do so while Ronald H. Spector won the Naval History Prize for his book Eagle Against the Sun. “News and Notes” also discusses the work of historians Edmund Morris and Joe F. Decker on Theodore Roosevelt’s political language, and it notes the recent publications of TRA Executive Director John A. Gable on Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and Amos Pinchot.

“News and Notes” also covers the death of David Russell Roosevelt, a great grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, the reprinting of Sagamore Hill: An Historical Guide by the TRA, efforts to mark the spot of Roosevelt’s famous bear hunt of 1902 in Mississippi, and the various student contests and awards for high school students sponsored by the TRA. The section also examines the donation of letters to Harvard University by Joanna Sturm, Alice Roosevelt Longworth’s granddaughter. Letters to and from Theodore Roosevelt with Alice Hathaway Lee, his first wife, and Longworth, his daughter, make up most of the donation. An exhibit at Harvard and an article, both based on the correspondence, are also covered. The section closes with a report on three benefits, two balls and a reception, held in July and August 1986, to benefit the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The historic locations for the events, the involvement of the Roosevelt family, and the officers of the ship who attended are all discussed.

Front and back covers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. The front cover features a montage of forty different drawings of Theodore Roosevelt based on photographs created by Hubbell Reed McBride. The montage has the title of “And One Man in his Time Plays Many Parts.” The back cover features the Roosevelt family coat of arms with its Latin motto “Qui Plantavit Curabit” and an illustration of three roses.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1984

“Taft finds his coat of arms” details how William H. Taft had his heraldry and many relatives revealed to him. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-1912

In the upper left, there is a “coat of arms.” There is a gloved hand holding a lantern above a banner that reads, “I turn on the dark lantern.” Underneath is a masked, bearded face and a big stick breaking a pitchfork. The coat of arms says, “All men are liars.” In the upper right, Ohio Senator Joseph Benson Foraker holds a President Roosevelt doll. Caption: Foraker takes his turn. On the bottom, South Carolina Senator Benjamin R. Tillman uses his pitchfork to remove the lid of the “White House” pot. Caption: Tillman threatens to lift the lid.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Floyd W. Triggs, in the short-lived New York Press, tried his hand at a “turn-about” cartoon then popular as a genre with political cartoonists of the day: unlikely scenes, unexpected results, and so forth. His focus in this cartoon, drawn as the Administration of President Roosevelt was in its last weeks, was on the general theme of the president and his opponents, and his ready tendency to brand people as liars.

In the first vignette, an African American man is labeled as the “proposed usher of the black rod.” In the second vignette, Secretary of War William H. Taft is labeled, “a nifty lord-in-waiting–waiting still for the nomination.” In the third vignette, Gifford Pinchot holds a tennis racket and is labeled, “first lord of the inner closet, with insignia of office.” In the fourth vignette, Henry Huttleston Rogers, Edward Henry Harriman, and John D. Rockefeller are labeled, “a group of bad barons in attitutes expressive of deep dissatisfaction and possible rebellion. In the fifth vignette is a “suggestion for royal coat of arms.” There is the big stick–;”Of course there can be but one sceptre.” The coat of arms includes the motto, “In votes we trust to bust the trusts.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

Many political and editorial cartoonists drew variations on the themes of the interests and activities of Theodore Roosevelt. As a cognoscente and polymath, the president offered inspiration enough, but his famous strenuosity added to the visual possibilities. Few cartoonists captured so many of the possibilities offered by the many-sided Roosevelt, and Garnet Warren found his “hook” when a professor from Michigan — presumably a hagiographic assessment, as Michigan was one of the nation’s most progressive states at the time — observed that the president was a virtual monarch in the glory of his presidency of the republic.

President Roosevelt and a Democratic donkey are yoked together with the “railroad rate bill” in a coat of arms that has a “big stick” and a pitchfork up at the top. The phrase at the bottom of the coat of arms reads, “The tie that binds.” Caption: They unite for a common cause.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-03-01

Each of the four 1904 presidential and vice-presidential candidates are drawn with a coat of arms and a descriptive word. President Roosevelt’s word is “imperial,” Indiana Senator Charles W. Fairbank’s word is “splendor,” Alton B. Parker’s word is “Jeffersonian,” and Henry Gassaway Davis’s word is “simplicity.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-10-12

Postcard with an oval photograph of President Roosevelt and his coat of arms, along with a short statement about his ancestors.

Collection

Fritz R. Gordner Collection

Creation Date

1908

Chester Edwards’ brother writes that he had a good weekend with fifteen dollars on Saturday and Sunday. He reminds Chester to get the work done, and wonders if he remembers three years ago today. The postcard depicts Theodore Roosevelt’s coat of arms, and names his ancestors Klaas Martensezen Van Roosevelt and Jannetje Samuels-Thomas, who emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1649.

Collection

Fritz R. Gordner Collection

Creation Date

1910-08-30

Coat of Arms for the Roosevelt family.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

Creation Date

Unknown

Mr. and Mrs. Newrich and their daughter consult with a man who is using “Burke’s Peerage” to trace the lineage of a prospective son-in-law. Caption: Mrs. Newrich — You say Lord Naryared’s family only goes back to Charles II. / The Heraldic Expert — Yes; to Charles II. / Papa Newrich — Great Scott! Judging from what he owes I thought he must go back to William the Conqueror!

Comments and Context

This Nankivell cartoon is on the contemporary mania of the rich, and especially the nouveau riche, to lust after, and sometimes “purchase” titles of nobility and royal lineage before marriages were arranged. A popular theme of cartoons was that phony titles were as common as the bankrupt estates of suitors.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Bernard J. Cigrand sends Theodore Roosevelt a copy of the article that he reviewed the proof of. Frank Harper told him of Roosevelt’s appreciation of the coat of arms that he sent and that he would send Cigrand the etching of it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-06

Bernard J. Cigrand mentions to Theodore Roosevelt the Roosevelt coat of arms as well as an etching of Roosevelt he recently mailed him. Cigrand is sending him an article about U.S. presidents’ participation in fraternal organizations, since Cigrand is a member himself, and asks Roosevelt to point out anything that needs changing (William Howard Taft has already done so himself).

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-14