Nevins, Allan, 1890-1971

Gregory A. Wynn chronicles the search by the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA) for a home for its extensive Theodore Roosevelt Collection. Wynn highlights the choice between Columbia and Harvard University, and he highlights the group’s sensitivity to the feelings of Theodore Roosevelt’s widow, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, as well as those of Nora E. Cordingley, the collection’s caretaker at its home at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace. Wynn reveals the disagreements and tensions between members of the RMA and the arguments made for and against each university gaining the collection, and he notes that the New York Public Library was also considered as the repository for the collection.

Three pieces of correspondence from the RMA and a photograph of John A. Gable with Hermann Hagedorn supplement the text.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2020

In the “Book Notes” column, Frederick W. Marks reviews William M. Gibson’s Theodore Roosevelt Among the Humorists and John A. Gable reviews Aloysius A. Norton’s Theodore Roosevelt. Marks criticizes Gibson for accepting the judgments of Theodore Roosevelt put forward by humorists such as Mark Twain, and he argues that Gibson, as a literature professor, is not qualified to make evaluations of Roosevelt’s diplomacy. Gable praises Norton’s study of Roosevelt as a writer, and his main criticism is that the book is too short to provide a thorough analysis of all of Roosevelt’s works. Marks and Gable contend that Roosevelt’s image continues to suffer from persistent stereotypes.

A picture of Roosevelt reading accompanies the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1981

John A. Gable describes in detail the life and work of Hermann Hagedorn, historian, biographer, and long-time Director of the Roosevelt Memorial Association and its successor, the Theodore Roosevelt Association. Gable covers Hagedorn’s life as a child of German immigrants in Brooklyn, New York, his education and teaching at Harvard, and his early career as a writer and poet. He notes Hagedorn’s difficulties as a German-American during World War I and the start of his friendship with Theodore Roosevelt that would define his career. Gable traces Hagedorn’s leadership of the Roosevelt Memorial Association over nearly four decades, discusses his many publications on Roosevelt, and looks at his other writings, including a number of biographies and many works of poetry.

Two photographs accompany this article. One is a formal portrait of Hagedorn and the other shows Hagedorn with President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the dedication of Sagamore Hill in June 1953.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal