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Fifteen-year-old Alicia E. Sanderson wishes Theodore Roosevelt a happy birthday. She shares that she cannot walk alone and that her father died five years ago. Sanderson is very fond of Roosevelt and asks for his autograph.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-26
Gertrude Randall shares with Theodore Roosevelt the challenges Walter S. Randall and her family has faced due to his paralyzation that occurred at 2 years old. Due to his disability he has found it difficult to find work and if he doesn’t find a job soon he will have to separate from his wife to live with their seventy-year old father. Randall hopes Roosevelt can help her brother secure a position so that he may be able to support himself and his wife.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-19
Ray C. Rose describes the life experiences and character of Bill McQuigg to Theodore Roosevelt. He is sending a copy of Backbone Monthly which provides a brief biographical sketch of McQuigg, who found “inspirational achievement” and consistent optimism after a debilitating back injury thirteen years ago. He invites Roosevelt to share the sketch with friends and write a personal letter to McQuigg.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-05-24
Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte asks President Roosevelt for instructions regarding James B. Walker, a United States Naval Academy nominee. Walker’s disability is similar to Crosby Matthews’s.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-09-10
A female figure labeled “Charity” holds a bouquet of flowers and stands next to a young boy with crutches and a bandaged foot. Puck, holding a lithographic pen, gestures toward viewers to donate to a worthy cause.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-12-24
A man labeled “Tax-payer” has fallen on steps labeled “Congress.” He has a large boulder labeled “War Taxes on Iron on Sugar on Cloth Salt Leather [and] Linens” strapped to his back. On the steps is a small stone labeled “Tax Taken Off Patent Medicines, Perfumery, etc.” In the room at the top of the steps, many hands dip into a bowl of coins labeled “River & Harbor Bill.” Caption: “He asked for bread, and they gave him a stone!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1882-08-09
A man labeled “Consumer” walks with crutches labeled “Free Oil” and “Free Hides,” and is heavily wrapped with bandages labeled “Free Valerianic, Free Cerium, Free Acorns, Gambier, Fossils, Free Orange Peel, Free Spunk, Coir, Rennets, Free Aniline Salts, Ipecac, Divi-Divi, Free Manganese, Free Turtles, Rags, Plumbago, Insects, Tonquin, Teeth, Free Brazilian Pebble, Free Pulu Litmus, [and] Free Rope ends.” He has just been discharged from the “United States Congressional Clinic” where “Matron Taft” stands at the door and doctors “Sherman, Payne, Aldrich, [and] Cannon” watch from a window as they clean their medical instruments.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1909-08-25