Reckner, James R., 1940-

Michele Bryant describes two visits by ships of the United States Navy to Seattle, Washington. The Great White Fleet made a port call in and around Seattle beginning on May 23, 1908, and two ships visited the city on May 23, 2008 to commemorate the fleet’s arrival a hundred years earlier. Bryant provides details of each event, highlighting the parade and the gift of live bears to each of the sixteen battleships during the 1908 visit. She notes the many dignitaries from the navy on hand for the 2008 port call, highlights the speakers, including Joe Wiegand, and details the various ceremonies, speeches, and gatherings that marked the occasion.

Sixteen photographs accompany the essay with four devoted to the 1908 visit and twelve showing the various guests, dignitaries, and speakers at the 2008 events.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2008

Genna Rollins provides a brief history of the Great White Fleet dispatched by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. Rollins notes the reasons behind the cruise, lists some of its port calls, and highlights the importance of the cruise to the United States’ relations with Japan. Rollins also gives notices about a number of events and museum exhibits planned to commemorate the sailing of the fleet, which includes a lecture and exhibits and programs at four museums, including one in Australia. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2007

Creator(s)

Rollins, Genna

Twelve books compete for space and attention in this crowded edition of the “Book Reviews” section which includes four feature reviews, two brief children’s book reviews, and notices about six other titles. Matthew Glover counters some of the assertions made by Louis Auchincloss in his Theodore Roosevelt by citing the work of historian John Milton Cooper. John A. Gable provides profiles of Alice Roosevelt Longworth and Eleanor Roosevelt, the subjects of Linda Donn’s The Roosevelt Cousins, and he notes the outsize influence that Theodore Roosevelt had on the extended Roosevelt clan. An anonymous review of Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Navy, and the Spanish-American War lists the nine chapters that resulted from a conference of the same name, and it notes some of the authors’ ties to the Theodore Roosevelt Association. 

Gable identifies four themes found in the ten essays that make up European Perceptions of the Spanish-American War of 1898, including most European nations’ hostility to the United States in the conflict, and he emphasizes the role played by the Roosevelt Study Center in fostering the emergence of a cohort of European scholars of American history. Two books aimed at children are reviewed in the “Kids Corner” section, and “Other New Books” highlights six titles published in 2001-2002, including new paperback editions of the Roosevelt biographies written by Edmund Morris and his wife Sylvia Jukes Morris. 

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

John A. Gable reviews two works in the “Book Reviews” section. Gable praises James B. Reckner’s history of the Great White Fleet and notes that the work favors the military and technological aspects of the cruise, and he emphasizes that the cruise served as an important test for the navy in many respects. Gable also favors Louis Auchincloss’s The Vanderbilt Era: Profiles of a Gilded Age which looks at how the fortune of the Vanderbilt family helped shape American art and architecture in a quest to create an “American Renaissance.”

Two photographs appear in the section: one of Reckner and one of the USS Theodore Roosevelt underway in the Mediterranean Sea with other ships of her battle group and planes from her air wing.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1989

Awards and grants sponsored by the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) make up much of this edition of the “News and Notes” column and include the conferring of the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize, the TRA Police Award for the New York City Police Department, and the annual research grants  from the American Museum of Natural History. The column also covers a reunion of the two branches of the Roosevelt family comprising the descendants of Theodore Roosevelt from Oyster Bay, New York, and those of Franklin D. Roosevelt from Hyde Park, New York. A letter from Elliott Roosevelt, a son of Franklin D. Roosevelt, to John A. Gable of the TRA recounts some shared episodes of Roosevelt family history, including Theodore Roosevelt’s role in Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s wedding and Theodore Roosevelt’s attempt to serve in World War I. “News and Notes” also describes the dedication of a rose garden in honor of Jessica Van Ausdall Kraft at Sagamore Hill, highlights the work of some of the TRA leadership, and promotes the publications of the TRA.

Two photographs of the rose garden ceremonies at Sagamore Hill, two from the luncheon for the Naval History Prize, and one of Theodore Roosevelt join a picture of both sides of the TRA medallion to illustrate the column.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

1989