Your TR Source
First day cover for a red 6-cent stamp featuring a portrait of Theodore Roosevelt. Postmarked New York, New York, on November 18, 1955. Along the left side of the envelope is an illustration of a man riding horseback with hills in the background.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1955-11-18
President Roosevelt leads a group on horseback, brandishing a whip and charging. Following him are several figures from history and legend including a Roman warrior, the drunken Tam O’Shanter, Paul Revere, Don Quixote, and Sancho Panza. Also following the charge, in silhouette, are Ichabod Crane from Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a member of the Pony Express, and Lady Godiva. All the riders except Roosevelt are weary or exhausted.
The context of this illustration of a poem in Puck Magazine was the famous horseback ride of President Roosevelt in the last months of his presidency. Convinced that the leadership ranks of the United States Army were too “soft,” he demonstrated the sort of mettle he considered a minimum requirement for men in uniform. On the night of January 13, 1909, the 50-year-old president and three aides — his Military Aide Captain Archibald Butt; Naval Surgeon General Presley M Rixey; and Dr. Cary Grayson, Naval Surgeon — rode on horseback to and from Warrenton, Farquier County, Virgina. They made the trip in record time, through storms of sleet and ice, much of the ride in the dark. They stopped for 10-minute “rests” and change of horses, except in Warrenton where they stopped for a full meal. Roosevelt made his point — a Rough Ride, certainly — and arrived at the White House about 4:00 the next morning, alone, covered in ice, and ready for a full breakfast and a day of work.
President Roosevelt invites General Miles to ride with him on Wednesday.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1901-09-30
Composite photograph showing President Roosevelt and some of his cabinet members superimposed onto White House lawn with other riders along with a woman in an automobile and a little boy with a dog in the far right corner.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1906-11-10
Archibald Roosevelt riding his pony in front of the White House.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1903
Archibald Roosevelt on a Shetland pony.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1903
Photograph of President Roosevelt watching his son, Theodore Roosevelt Jr., ride a horse.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1907
Photograph of President Roosevelt on horseback printed around 1970. Originally from a stereograph taken in 1898.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898
President Roosevelt in uniform sitting on horse facing forward. He is preparing to travel to Cuba as leader of the Rough Riders.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1898
Arthur P. Gorman appears as a jockey riding on a bucking horse labeled “Maryland.” He has dropped his riding crop labeled “Trickery.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1894-05-09
Cowboy Theodore Roosevelt rides ahead and pulls the reins of a horse ridden by Mark Hanna. Hanna has “Ohio” on his saddle blanket and his initials “M.H.” and a small bug in his hat. Likely published during the 1900 presidential campaign, when Roosevelt’s candidacy for Vice President strengthened the McKinley ticket but Hanna protested it, saying, “[T]here’s only one life between that madman and the Presidency.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1900
William McKinley, as Napoleon I, rides a white horse labeled “Ohio” and carries a sword labeled “McKinley.” He is on the banks of a river, leading an army that includes Benjamin Harrison, Thomas B. Reed, John Sherman, William E. Chandler, William M. Stewart, Matthew S. Quay, Chauncey M. Depew, George F. Hoar, and Whitelaw Reid. On the other side of the river is the U.S. Capitol with the date “1896” above it. Caption: They do not see the Waterloo before them.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1893-12-13
Puck rides on a winged, white horse, holding a lithographic pen with banner that states “1000th Number.” He is led by cherubs with floral garlands and blowing horns. At top are many of the characters depicted in Puck magazine over the past 19 years. Includes light verse.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1896-05-06
William Jennings Bryan pulls on a saddle strap labeled “[18]96, 1900, 1908” on the Democratic donkey, trying to get it tight enough for the pin to fit into “The Third Hole” labeled “1908.” Caption: Same old cinch, but considerably tighter this time.
Only three weeks before the presidential balloting in 1908, and students will notice several factors displayed in this cartoon by Frank A. Nankivell.
Spanish general and Cuban governor Valerià Weyler sits on his horse on an island labeled “Cuba.” A bomb labeled “Dissatisfaction” is burning near the rear of the horse. In the background, the dark clouds of the Cuban rebellion are overshadowed by heavier clouds of war labeled “Græco-Turkish War.”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1897-05-12
Two women dressed for horseback riding and fox hunting gossip about another woman’s femininity. Caption: De Crop — Gwendolyn is an intensely feminine girl. / Miss Ryder — More so than the rest of us? / De Crop — Well, she asked a blacksmith the other day if her horse couldn’t wear shoes a size smaller.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1914-10-03
Image shows a large group of Rough Riders in uniform on horseback.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1898
Theodore Roosevelt is amazed that Ethel Roosevelt is now nineteen years old. Things have been quiet at Sagamore Hill and Roosevelt has been kept busy with work. Willard Dickerman Straight has been trying to visit but Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt has avoided him. Edith rode Pineknot, the horse, one day and found his gait distressing so that she could hardly move for two days afterward.
1910-08-14
Ethel Roosevelt Derby’s letter made Theodore Roosevelt homesick for the Derby family. He is now always at breakfast on time as Ethel’s daughter, Edith Roosevelt Derby, is no longer there to keep his attention. When mounting his horse recently, Roosevelt laughed after recalling Richard Derby, Jr., frightening the horse with loud tricycling. They are excited over press reports that Quentin Roosevelt claimed an aerial victory which Roosevelt describes as Quentin’s “day of honor and triumph.” Archibald Roosevelt is having an arm operation and may need eight months to recover before returning to active service.
1918-07-12
President Roosevelt asks Anna Roosevelt Cowles to forward a note to Mrs. Vanderbilt, and is pleased with the family’s activities.
1907-09-03