Your TR Source
Henry Smith informs Theodore Roosevelt that he has succeeded in obtaining fifteen contributors to purchase the painting A cavalry troop on the southern plains by Frederick Remington, which will be presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Smith thanks Roosevelt for the kind words about Remington Roosevelt said the last time they met.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-12-14
Charles H. Davis once sent Theodore Roosevelt carbon copy drawings by Frederic Remington and asked Roosevelt to sit for photographs. In response Roosevelt said he would try to make time, but it has now been several years and Davis would like to have Roosevelt sit for an hour for the better photographs than have yet been taken.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-10-02
Caspar Whitney informs President Roosevelt that he had received four letters where people had made fun of him for taking up “cudgels for Roosevelt” although Whitney was not included in the roll of honor in the September issue of Everybody’s magazine. Whitney tells Roosevelt that his “interest in life is not to be reckoned on rolls of honor,” but the letters have made him wonder if the absence of his name from the rolls meant more than he originally thought. Whitney would like to know where he stands with the president.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-09-07
Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary informs Caspar Whitney that there is no organization collecting funds to the monument of Frederic Remington. Homer Davenport was doing most of the fundraising, and the secretary suggests Whitney get in contact with his estate. Theodore Roosevelt would really like Whitney to bring the matter to completion.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1912-05-29
Theodore Roosevelt recalls his time ranching in North Dakota and his acquaintance with Mr. Foley. He relates a story about run-away horses in which the poet played a part, confirming that Foley writes his “Western sketches” not out of books but from his own experiences.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1916
President Roosevelt describes his appreciation of the artist Frederic Remington to Arthur W. Little. Roosevelt appreciates Remington’s depiction of a “vanishing type of American life,” notably the soldiers, cowboys, ranchers, and Native Americans of the American West. Roosevelt also remarks on Remington’s mastery of not only sculpture but also painting and literature.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-07-17
Theodore Roosevelt is delighted with John Burroughs’ article, but thinks Burroughs overstates Roosevelt’s own powers of observations. Roosevelt made two or three corrections to the article. He also believes that there is no purpose in further alluding to William J. Long and the “nature faker” controversy. Roosevelt asks Burroughs if he saw an article in the American Magazine where Whitman made a friendly allusion to Roosevelt’s ranch sketches in 1888.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-06-29
President Roosevelt sympathizes with Charles Stedman Hanks, and gives examples where illustrations of animals in books did not match the animals described in the text. Roosevelt remarks that, regarding the “Tillman incident,” he must meet with many people, and it is impossible for him to prevent some number of them from lying about him. Roosevelt feels that the railroad rate bill is in a good place, but is wary of what may happen to it.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-05-18
President Roosevelt thanks Corinne Roosevelt Robinson for the gift of Frederic Remington’s Done in the Open and describes his family’s Christmas activities.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-12-26
President Roosevelt thanks David Pell Secor for the letters and is pleased that Secor enjoyed Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail. Roosevelt finds Frederic Remington’s illustrations admirable.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1902-05-05
Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt invites Rufus Fairchild Zogbaum and Frederic Remington to travel aboard the USS Dolphin to meet up with the USS Puritan.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1897-08-31
Henry Smith asks Theodore Roosevelt for an interview to discuss the desire of the late Frederic Remington to have one of his paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Smith believes Roosevelt admired Remington and hopes Roosevelt will cooperate in the effort to fulfill Remington’s desire.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-11-23
Kermit Roosevelt writes to his father about the start of his time at Harvard College. Kermit also describes reading President Roosevelt’s published correspondence with William Jennings Bryan, attending a speech delivered by William H. Taft, and seeing Frederic Remington.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-03
Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from January 1884 to December 1891. Notable events include the deaths of Alice Lee Roosevelt and Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, Roosevelt’s time on his ranch, the completion of Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s engagement and marriage to Edith Kermit Carow, Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt’s birth, the “Great-Dieup” of cattle in North Dakota, and the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
1985
Moore, Robert J. (Robert John), 1956-; Theodore Roosevelt Association
Tweed Roosevelt describes a visit to the White House in which he and members of his family met President Barack Obama. Roosevelt notes that he took the opportunity to ask Obama to consider declaring the Elkhorn Ranch site in North Dakota a national monument to protect it from the encroachments of the oil industry in the Badlands. Roosevelt quotes a long passage from Theodore Roosevelt’s writing about the ranch site, and he highlights the two most immediate threats to the area, proposals for a bridge across the Little Missouri River and a gravel mine. Roosevelt says that the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) must act to save the site that was so important to Theodore Roosevelt and the American conservation movement.
Four photographs and an illustration, including one each of the Elkhorn Ranch site, supplement the text.
Art Koch reveals the subject and context of the ninth “TR-era image” which shows Colonel Theodore Roosevelt shaking hands with members of his Rough Riders cavalry regiment at its mustering out of service on September 13, 1898. Frederic Remington’s bronze sculpture of “The Bronco-Buster” can be seen on a table near Roosevelt. The tenth TR-era image is a stereoscope view of a wrecked ship.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1898-09-13
Art Koch reveals that no reader has been able to identify the subject of “TR-era image” number eight which had been misidentified as Theodore Roosevelt in an earlier issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal. Koch asks his readers to identify the subjects and context of image number nine which shows members of the Rough Riders in a line waiting their turn to shake Roosevelt’s hand.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1898
Lowell E. Baier describes the importance of Theodore Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch to the formation of Roosevelt’s environmental awareness, and subsequently to the emergence of the nation’s conservation movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Baier provides a brief history of the conservation movement in the United States before Roosevelt’s emergence as its leader, and he argues that the conservation effort stemmed in part from the nation’s desire to preserve parts of its frontier past. Baier quotes Roosevelt biographer Edmund Morris in emphasizing the importance of the Elkhorn to Roosevelt’s environmental beliefs, and he highlights efforts to secure the protection of lands directly across the Little Missouri River from the Elkhorn ranch house.
A photograph of Roosevelt with two of his ranch hands and three historic photographs of the Elkhorn Ranch buildings populate the essay along with two contemporary color photographs of the site. The essay also features illustrations of Roosevelt’s cattle brands, sketches of the Elkhorn ranch buildings by Frederic Remington, and a large map showing the various units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and surrounding lands.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
2007
John A. Gable critiques a book and an article that have been cited to undermine the case for awarding Theodore Roosevelt the Medal of Honor. Gable considers Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan: The Making of a President by Harold Samuels and Peggy Samuels and an article by military historian Mitchell A. Yockelson. Gable argues that the panel considering the merits of Roosevelt’s case should consider these works so that they can see the weakness of the argument against awarding Roosevelt the medal. Gable highlights some of the deficiencies in each of these works and refers to the Samuels’s book as “a blatant hatchet job.”
A photograph of Gable with Tweed Roosevelt and two photographs of the Roosevelt Rough Rider equestrian statue in Portland, Oregon, supplement the letter.
James F. Vivian provides a look at Theodore Roosevelt’s time in the North Dakota Badlands with a collection of newspaper accounts, ranging from 1898 to 1915, drawn from interviews with Roosevelt’s friends, fellow ranchers, cowboys, and acquaintances. Vivian provides an introduction and an afterword to the article, as well as an introduction to each of its twelve sections. The accounts include reminiscences from the likes of William Sewall, Arthur T. Packard, and the brothers Sylvane Ferris and Joseph Ferris. Vivian contends that these interviews “corroborate the content and quality” of the work done by Hermann Hagedorn in his book Roosevelt in the Bad Lands.
Ten photographs appear in the article, including three of Roosevelt’s contemporaries, Frederick Herrig, James W. Foley, and Arthur T. Packard, along with two photographs of the museum dedicated to Roosevelt onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. An illustration by Frederic Remington of Roosevelt’s capture of the boat thieves, and a text box with a listing of the members of the executive committee of the Theodore Roosevelt Association supplement the text.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1992