Your TR Source
Jerome D. Greene has deposited the copy of the inauguration medal designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens with the Curator of Coins in the library at Harvard University.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-07-13
A decree presenting Theodore Roosevelt Jr. a first class medal of honor in 1943 by the Bey of the Kingdom of Tunisia.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1943-10-30
Theodore Roosevelt thanks King O’Malley for sending him the gold medal relating to jiu-jitsu and points out there is an error in the inscription.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1917-06-02
Theodore Roosevelt informs R. M. Calkins that the inscription in the medal is false as he was never taught jiujitsu by Mr. Hill.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1917-06-02
Mrs. A. B. Thompson asks Theodore Roosevelt if Charles J. Thompson was given the Gold Medal for his work on the Panama Canal. She also asks if the government bought the patent rights to the Thompson Steam Shovel.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-09
Secretary of War Taft jokingly tells President Roosevelt that he was unaware that the president had received a medal of honor from the Philippines Exposition of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair and that the president is of now the same class as Taft’s wife Helen and everyone on the Philippine Islands. Taft says he could not have stopped Dr. Gustav Niederlein’s reckless awarding of medals and would be glad to talk to Roosevelt about it later.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-02-06
Francis Davis Millet criticizes the design of a medal of George Washington discussed in a newspaper clipping he has enclosed, saying that it fails to capture Washington’s noble characteristics. Millet stresses the importance of a medallist’s duty to capture a President’s features, as a medal will survive after all other forms of art have disappeared. He hopes that Theodore Roosevelt will have a medal that will “hold its own.” He also sends a set of eight medals struck by the French mint as examples of what he means by “nobility in a medal.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905-01-13
An image of a medal, part of the insignia for the Society of American Wars created by Tiffany and Co. in New York City.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1905
Father Knickerbocker, a symbolic figure for New York City, places a medal on Abram S. Hewitt in honor of his “Good Citizenship.”
The specific occasion of this cartoon was to join the New York City Chamber of Commerce in its honoring of Abram S. Hewitt with a gold medal on his 78th birthday. The theme of their praise was Hewitt’s pioneering work in designing and building New York’s first underground rail system. However his accomplishments were many: industrialist, railroad builder, philanthropist, member of Congress, mayor of New York City, and benefactor of Cooper Union, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History. He was the son-in-law of industrialist and civic reformer Peter Cooper, a friend of Theodore Roosevelt’s father. The paths of Hewitt and the future President Roosevelt crossed in other ways: when young Theodore ran for New York City mayor in 1886, Hewitt was the Democratic (and unsuccessful) candidate. A third-party candidate, Socialist Henry George, placed second. Hewitt was also an investor in Badlands cattle businesses when Roosevelt had his ranches there, although the elderly patrician Hewitt never rode the range.
President Roosevelt thanks Frédéric Mistral for the book and medal. Roosevelt and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt are pleased with the book because they have possessed a copy of it for nearly twenty years and are glad to have a new copy with a personal inscription by Mistral. Roosevelt applauds Mistral for teaching the lesson that “the things that really count in life are the things of spirit.” While factories and railways are good, what matters most are “homely, work-a-day” and “heroic virtues.” A second typewritten copy is included with a note explaining that the letter was sent in Roosevelt’s handwriting.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-12-15
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary tells Mrs. A. B. Thompson that while Roosevelt cannot remember every detail, if she desires more information about Charles J. Thompson’s medal she could write to Joseph Bucklin Bishop.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-17
Theodore Roosevelt writes to Wallace Batchelder thanking him for the gold medal and apologizing for the mistake in the book that accredits Batchelder to the Pennsylvania roster instead of Vermont. Corrections will be made in future editions, but he recommends writing to the War Department about the needed change.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-07-14
Theodore Roosevelt wishes he could help Bryan Leighton, but the medals were only given to members of the American Army.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-04-20
Theodore Roosevelt cannot attend the ceremony presenting Catherine M. Gallagher a medal honoring her work defending the “wearers of the uniform.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-07
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary sends T. L. Comparetti a letter from Tiffany and Company with information about the medal. He hopes it is what Comparetti needs and informs him to contact him if Roosevelt can help.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-03
On behalf of Theodore Roosevelt, his secretary thanks Edwin E. Noyes for sending the medal given to Roosevelt by a Greek society in Chicago during his visit. Roosevelt would like Noyes to search the rooms in which he stayed there, for a lost cuff link made from an old Greek coin.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-01
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt thanks Assistant Secretary of War Oliver for the medal.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-05-08
Theodore Roosevelt thanks Elizabeth Mills Reid for the medal and tells her that he enjoyed seeing her at lunch.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1915-03-29
Theodore Roosevelt thanks Harry P. Dickinson for the medal commemorating the first trip through the Panama Canal.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1914-12-22
Theodore Roosevelt is pleased to accept the medal commemorating the first “ocean to ocean” trip through the Panama Canal.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1914-12-11