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President Roosevelt thanks Henry Clay Carrel for sending the old engravings to him, and he agrees with Carrel that the country should be proud of Charles Follen McKim’s restoration of the White House interiors.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-16
President Roosevelt sends a list of nominations for the Council of Fine Arts and encloses a copy of the executive order he issued to create such a council.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-18
President Roosevelt praises the restoration of the White House done by Charles Follen McKim during Roosevelt’s presidency, and asks Cass Gilbert and the American Institute of Architects if they would take “the duty of preserving a perpetual ‘eye of guardianship’ over the White House to see that it is kept unchanged and unmarred.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-19
President Roosevelt tells Abby Gunn Baker that he feels that Lyon Gardiner Tyler should write to the White House to offer the portrait, and that it wouldn’t be proper for them to write to him asking for a gift. Roosevelt approves of the plan to hang the portrait, but the initiative should come from Tyler. Roosevelt refutes what Baker mentioned in her letter of a plan between Robert Underwood Johnson and Glenn Brown to add another story on the East Terrace of the White House in order to house a portrait gallery there. Roosevelt thinks doing this would be a great mistake architecturally, and says that while the White House can hold portraits of presidents and first ladies, others belong in the National Portrait Gallery.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-12-05
President Roosevelt feels that W.C. Brownell has perfectly expressed his own thoughts in a particular sentence. He liked Brownell’s article on Lowell and the phrases that he used, and expresses his admiration for Abraham Lincoln
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-01-29
President Roosevelt feels that the American public will support the enterprise Halsey Cooley Ives is engaged in, and feels that the creation of such a museum of art will “be one of the strongest factors in the development of art education and of the appreciation of art,” not only in Missouri, but throughout the United States. He hopes that Ives is able to do the work he suggests.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-18
President Roosevelt wishes for Nicholas Murray Butler to visit and concurs that William J. Calhoun is worthy of esteem. Roosevelt comments at length on an article in Collier’s Weekly, one he assumes was written by Norman Hapgood, and desires Butler to “know the exact facts.” On careful reading, Roosevelt believes the article was written with malicious intent due to its numerous falsehoods regarding the construction projects at the Capitol and the White House, the hiring of the architects completing these jobs, appointments of others to government posts, and other matters. In his explanation, Roosevelt makes analogies to many political situations, past and present.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-03
Secretary of War Elihu Root does not want Charles Follen McKim to receive the contract “unless the superiority of his bid is so manifest that it is impossible to pass it by.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-03-21
George B. Cortelyou encloses a telegram from architect Charles F. McKim.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-10-30
Brander Matthews thanks President Roosevelt for the quotation, which he plans to show to Nicholas Murray Butler. Matthews comments that Elihu Root and Charles Follen McKim received honorary degrees at Columbia University’s commencement. He includes a limerick written by Oliver Herford.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-06-08
Articles titled “The New White House,” “Consular Reform” by John E. Monk, and “Where Statesmen Loiter” by Hal H. Smith are included. The second comments on President Roosevelt’s advocacy of the merit system as the basis on which to appoint and promote members of the diplomatic service, extending the civil service principle into the consular service.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1902-11-01