Your TR Source
President Roosevelt invites Brander Matthews and his wife to dinner at the White House on December 5. He thanks Matthews for sending him a magazine.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-23
President Roosevelt tells Bishop Funsten that his letter is “first-rate,” and suggests if Mr. Winslow does not understand it, it is because he is unable to take on new information.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-19
Brander Matthews writes a teasing letter to President Roosevelt. He says that he will enclose “our special souvenir for tomorrow’s banquet” of the Simplified Spelling Board at which he hopes to get Thomas R. Lounsbury elected Chairman in place of himself.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-02
Theodore Roosevelt suggests that Albert T. Sinclair contact Professor Thomas R. Lounsbury at Yale and other college presidents for the answer to his question.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-17
Theodore Roosevelt encourages Jacob Piatt Dunn to contact Alexander Smith Cochran for funding for a project to preserve “Indian languages.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-11-26
President Roosevelt will not let his “gloom at thirty years of Harvard’s defeat in athletics” make him surprised at the quality of scholarship from Yale. He believes that Yale’s Thomas R. Lounsbury is the foremost scholar in the country. He asks Charles Hitchcock Sherrill if he saw Owen Wister’s address at Harvard where he alluded to Gifford Pinchot. He also invites Sherrill and his wife to come to the diplomatic reception and dinner on January 9.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-01-01
President Roosevelt has read Owen Wister’s admirable article. There are a few minor points on which he disagrees, such as the study of economics and government, but these are trivial, and he feels the lesson is exactly the right kind. He hopes to see Wister soon.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-12-31
President Roosevelt addresses the entire editorial board of The Outlook, as he is unsure which particular editor “had his mind all turned askew” by the writings of William J. Long. Roosevelt appreciates The Outlook’s coverage of topics such as the Brownsville Incident, race relations in San Francisco, and railroad rate legislation, but he takes strong exception to The Outlook describing his distaste for Long’s writing a “controversy.” Roosevelt condems Long’s writings and describes him as a “cheap imposter” who does not observe nature but fabricates nature stories that could not possibly happen. Roosevelt takes issue with The Oulook’s assertions about his comments on Long’s writing, and discusses in detail the “mechanical”—not “mathematical”—impossibility of a wolf killing a caribou with a single bite as Long describes. Roosevelt suggests several naturalists in New York the editors can consult in matters of “nature fakers,” and offers to go page by page through one of Long’s books with The Outlook special nature editor.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-03
President Roosevelt has nothing to add to what he has already said about James Fenimore Cooper. He recommends Brander Matthews read his book The Winning of the West for more information. Roosevelt liked Thomas R. Lounsbury’s article.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-07
President Roosevelt encloses a copy of a letter from Benjamin Franklin in a letter to British Ambassador James Bryce and asks if Bryce has read the article by Thomas R. Lounsbury in the latest Atlantic Monthly.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-01
President Roosevelt found British journalist John St. Loe Strachey’s article on his spelling order good but writes to clarify that his own action was very little. Instead, he supported “a proper movement of scholarship.” Roosevelt believes most of the changes authorized will become commonplace although some will certainly be rejected.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-11
President Roosevelt tells Public Printer Stillings to direct that all government publications use the simplified spellings of three hundred words provided by the Simplified Spelling Board. Roosevelt explains his advocacy for simplified spelling, stating that he believes that it is important for the government to advance ahead of popular sentiment, rather than lag behind. If the changes meet with popular approval, they will naturally become permanent. Roosevelt maintains that the simplified spelling movement is a continuation of former simplifications and alterations of English spelling, and believes that it will make certain spellings “a little less foolish and fantastic.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-08-27
Charles P. G. Scott informs members of the Simplified Spelling Board of the upcoming annual meeting on April 4 and 5 and gives a brief overview of the itinerary. A provisional program is also included.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-28
Albert T. Sinclair thanks Theodore Roosevelt for answering his letter, and outlines the various scholars and professors he has already attempted to speak to about Celts and Celtic languages. Roosevelt’s letter satisfied what Sinclair has feared, namely that there is no one with the time and equipment necessary to do the work, and he pledges himself to do the best he can with it. Sinclair also comments on some boxers he met, and reminisces about his time in Ireland.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-02-23
Irving Fisher invites Theodore Roosevelt to a luncheon during his visit to New Haven, Connecticut, to meet friends and the officers of the Chamber of Commerce.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-11-04
As part of the celebration of Cooperstown’s centennial, Brander Matthews is to prepare a speech on James Fenimore Cooper. Matthews asks if Roosevelt has any thoughts to add on his admiration for Cooper aside from what Jacob Riis has already said. Matthews recalls some of Roosevelt’s criticisms of what Cooper wrote about Native Americans.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-05-06
Brander Matthews thanks President Roosevelt for extending hospitality to a member of Nicholas Murray Butler’s family. He congratulates Roosevelt on his election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, noting that he is the only President who could have been considered eligible, except perhaps Thomas Jefferson. Branders intends to send his book American Familiar Verse to Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-03-16
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.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
1985
Vice President Roosevelt confirms that he will visit. Edith Roosevelt is taking care of Quentin Roosevelt, who is not doing well.
1901-08-28
Theodore Roosevelt asks writer Edward Sandford Martin if January 19 is okay for lunch and if he suggested too many names. He asks if Martin would care to ask Professor Lounsbury of Yale, perhaps referring to Thomas Lounsbury.
1911-12-23