Nobel Prize winners

William J. Vanden Heuvel looks at the connections between Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, especially their shared commitment to American engagement with the world and promoting conservation. Vanden Heuvel highlights Theodore Roosevelt’s winning the Nobel Peace Prize and his support for an inheritance tax, and he notes that both Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to regulate corporations and the wealthy for the benefit of the working class. Two photographs and a drawing of Sagamore Hill supplement the address.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2003-10-24

Creator(s)

Vanden Heuvel, William J. (William Jacobus), 1930-

Charlotte Matson asks Theodore Roosevelt to what use the money won from his Nobel Peace Prize was put. A lecturer speaking on the Nobel Prize asked the audience to find out how Roosevelt used the prize money, but Matson has limited resources so she is asking Roosevelt directly.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-24

Creator(s)

Matson, Charlotte

President Roosevelt has received the medal, diploma, and check for the Nobel Prize. He thanks the committee, and tells them that the money is being used to create a foundation for promoting industrial peace.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-08

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt sends a check to Melville Weston Fuller for the amount of the Nobel Prize and associated paperwork. He has given a few related letters to Oscar S. Straus. When Fuller has a plan, Roosevelt would like to talk it over with him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-01-04

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt with his “Nobel Peace Prize” attached to his vest and his “big stick” in hand utters profanities as he grips “former Senator Burton’s speech” with a piece labeled “criticism” coming off. A dog running away from the president says, “Another member for the Ananias club.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-04

In one circle, President Roosevelt holds a box labeled, “Nobel Peace Prize.” In another, Andrew Carnegie cuts a paper labeled “Inheritance” that is divided in half. One side reads, “This piece is for the children,” and the other reads, “This piece is to be returned to the ‘community.'” In the last circle, Henry Watterson faces Roosevelt and holds a bag with a tag, “To Europe,” and a paper sticking out that says “T.R. is all right.” Two men are outside the circles with a paper that says, “We got ours,” while a government clerk looks through a telescope at the number “20%.”

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-17

“Norway” hands President Roosevelt a “Nobel Prize $40,000.” Behind Roosevelt is a large “big stick” with “olive branches” on the wall along with the “Treaty of Portsmouth—Russo-Japanese.” On the ground is “Roosevelt’s plans for Industrial Peace Commission—$40,000 endowment.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-11

Creator(s)

Unknown

President Roosevelt pushes Bellamy Storer out the door as they are surrounded by letters. On the desk is “the big stick” and a dove in a cage with the tag: “Nobel Peace Prize awarded to T. R.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-11

Creator(s)

Macauley, C. R. (Charles Raymond), 1871-1934

Reproduction of Theodore Roosevelt’s Nobel Prize medallion engraved “Pro Pace et Fraternitate Gentium,” and the certificate that accompanied it.

Collection

Dickinson State University

Creation Date

Unknown

Creator(s)

Unknown

Theodore Roosevelt does not mind writing another letter to Mary Phillips Riis. He was only explaining, in his previous letter, that the people he would usually send a letter of introduction to in London are all on the front and would not be able to help her. He tells Dr. Jane Elizabeth Robbins that if the Democratic controlled Congress would put his Nobel Peace Prize to work, he could help her work at the Neighborhood Settlement but he is instead helpless.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-02-04

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Theodore Roosevelt believes that the arrangements he made for the disposition of his Nobel Prize money was a mistake. If possible, he would like to use the funds for different philanthropic purposes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1914-11-16

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

President Roosevelt writes to Harry Pratt Judson that he wishes he could be at the University of Chicago in person to congratulate professor A. A. Michelson for the Nobel Prize and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society of Great Britain. Michelson’s scholarship is exactly the kind of work that America needs more of.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-12-31

Creator(s)

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Herbert H. D. Peirce informs President Roosevelt that he has been awarded the Nobel peace prize. Peirce asks that he be delegated to appear as Roosevelt’s representative to receive the diploma, medal, and prize, as the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs has suggested.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-01

Creator(s)

Peirce, Herbert H. D. (Herbert Henry Davis), 1849-1916

President Roosevelt is notified confidentially that even though the announcement will not be official until December 10, that he has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-01

Creator(s)

Løvland, Jørgen, 1848-1922; Peirce, Herbert H. D. (Herbert Henry Davis), 1849-1916

Acting Secretary of State Adee encloses a dispatch from the American Minister in Christiana, Norway, about Richard Bartholdt’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-24

Creator(s)

Adee, Alvey A. (Alvey Augustus), 1842-1924

L. S. Rowe conveys that newspapers in Brazil write that delegates from around the world celebrated President Roosevelt’s Nobel Prize.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-14

Creator(s)

Rowe, L. S. (Leo Stanton), 1871-1946

Louis B. Livingston describes the process by which the prize money awarded to Theodore Roosevelt for his 1906 Nobel Prize languished for years before it was finally put to use to address the needs of soldiers and their families during World War I. Livingston notes that Roosevelt refused the prize money for his personal use and that he oversaw the establishment of a Foundation for the Promotion of Industrial Peace to promote better relations between workers and their employers. When the money went unspent, Roosevelt asked Congress to return the funds to him. Livingston asserts that this episode demonstrates Roosevelt’s ability to adapt to changing circumstances and his preoccupation with World War I in the last years of his life.

A photograph of Roosevelt with the representatives of Russia and Japan to the Portsmouth Treaty negotiations appears in the essay, along with a copy of Roosevelt’s Nobel Prize award check and a page from the Congressional Record. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

William N. Tilchin examines why Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his mediation of the Russo-Japanese War. Tilchin asserts that Roosevelt had gained a great deal of diplomatic experience prior to the 1905 negotiations at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, including his work in acquiring the rights to build the Panama Canal. Tilchin also notes that Roosevelt had a sense of the larger geopolitical stakes at hand in the war; namely, preserving the balance of power in both Asia and Europe, and he highlights how Roosevelt deployed his friendships with Kentaro Kaneko of Japan and the United States Ambassador to Russia George von Lengerke Meyer throughout the negotiations.

Three photographs appear in the essay, including one of Roosevelt with the peace commissioners from Russia and Japan and one of Tilchin at the site of the treaty negotiations at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2007-10-28

James F. Vivian describes the efforts of the Roosevelt Monument Association to have an equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt made for the state agricultural college in Fargo, North Dakota. Vivian highlights the sculptor chosen for the project, Gustav Viegland, and he details how Roosevelt, who initially sat for Viegland, decided that he did not want a statue made of him while he was still alive. An illustration of a model of the proposed statue appears in the article as does a reprint of a letter from the Roosevelt Monument Association on association stationery. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2007

Creator(s)

Vivian, James F.

Henry J. Hendrix describes the negotiations in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, between Russia and Japan in an effort to end the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Hendrix also details the role played by President Theodore Roosevelt, especially his use of third parties to act as intermediaries between him and the warring powers. Hendrix notes that Roosevelt persuaded the Japanese to surrender their demand for an indemnity from the Russians, convincing them that asking for a payment would appear to the world as continuing the war simply for money. Hendrix asserts that studying the negotiations reveals that Roosevelt was in charge of his diplomacy; that he was “deeply involved” in the process; and that he made effective use of back-channel or third party diplomacy. 

Two photographs and two political cartoons of Roosevelt illustrate the article.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal