Rixey, Presley Marion, 1852-1928

Dr. Rixey will reach Groton on Friday.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-02-19

Dr. Rixey is coming to Groton to pick up Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt and Ted Roosevelt. President Roosevelt warns that Ted should not come until it is absolutely safe.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1902-02-18

Julian C. Keith hopes Theodore Roosevelt now has time to accept his invitation for “some real old Virginia fox hunting.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-11

Secretary of the Navy Bonaparte updates William Loeb on Admiral Eustace Barron Rogers’s acceptance to be appointed Paymaster General. He also includes the requested memorandum from Admiral H. T. B. Harris and discusses the findings of the recent Court of Enquiry. Bonaparte also asks for advice regarding the cases of the three naval academy candidates turned down for deafness and that of J. Raynor Wells’s.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-09-08

John Campbell Greenway feels the country is prospering under President Roosevelt’s administration, with corporations earning plenty of money despite Roosevelt’s “attacks” on them. Greenway wants Roosevelt to run for president in 1907 because the people want him to and because he thinks William Jennings Bryan will give the next candidate a tight rub.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-08-08

Stephen E. Siry provides a detailed account of the trolley car accident in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on September 3, 1902 that injured President Roosevelt and killed Secret Service agent William Craig. Siry covers Roosevelt’s travel in New England before the accident; describes the collision between a trolley car and the president’s horse drawn carriage; and details the aftermath of the incident, including Roosevelt’s desire to reassure the nation that he was safe. Siry also examines the treatment of the wound to Roosevelt’s leg and the subsequent travel plans that were altered and abandoned as his condition worsened. 

Four photographs supplement the article, including three from the day of the accident. 

Excerpts from the diaries of First Lady Edith Kermit Roosevelt edited by A. Richard Boera. The excerpts are taken from eight different years and most of the entries are short. Some of the most common topics include the various health issues of the Roosevelt family, lists of guests for lunch and dinner at the White House, and the riding excursions of Edith and Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt’s assuming the presidency after President William McKinley’s assassination, the final days of Roosevelt’s presidency, and the tour of Europe after Roosevelt’s African safari in 1910 are also covered. 

A photograph of Edith Roosevelt in 1901, a drawing of her by John Singer Sargent in 1921, and a family portrait of Edith and Theodore Roosevelt with all of their children at Sagamore Hill in 1903 supplement the text. A listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association along with the members of its executive committee appears on the second page of the excerpts.  

Newspaper clipping of cartoon showing “Doctor Rixey” giving a turkey chloroform as Theodore Roosevelt cries in the background.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1901-1909

Robert C. Kimberly provides a detailed examination of the various afflictions and ailments that marked the life of Theodore Roosevelt from his childhood to his death in January 1919. He describes Roosevelt’s struggles with asthma and poor eyesight as a youth, his battle to control his weight, and details many of the injuries he suffered while living out the strenuous life. Kimberly delves into the serious leg injury Roosevelt suffered in a carriage accident in 1902, his decades long struggle with malaria, his near death experience on the River of Doubt expedition, and the treatment he received after the October 1912 assassination attempt. He notes the many doctors who treated Roosevelt as well as the implications his health problems had for his wife Edith.  

A listing of the officers of the Theodore Roosevelt Association is found on page three of the article and an advertisement for the Roosevelt Savings Bank is found at its conclusion. 

Rear Admiral Presley Marion Rixey looks on as President Roosevelt fires at two targets shaped like a lion and elephant with the names “Foraker” and “Tillman” respectively on them. Two rabbits–“Mellen” and “Paul Morton–as well as a wolf–“E. H. Gary” also watch. Beside them is “the spear that knows no brother.” Caption: Prepare targets similar to those shown above, lead the Faunal Naturalist to the rifle range and he will do the rest.

comments and context

Comments and Context

McKee Barclay’s drawing represents, in cartooning terms, a mixed metaphor, calling upon several thematic and political threads in one image. President Roosevelt appears to be readying himself for his upcoming African safari by target practice; yet he concentrates by labelling two of targets with the names of two of the most persistent of the president’s critics, Senators Joseph Benson Foraker and “Pitchfork” Benjamin R. Tillman.

George B. Cortelyou provides Fourth Assistant Postmaster General Joseph L. Bristow with the plans and schedule for President Roosevelt’s upcoming trip to New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-01

George B. Cortelyou provides Washington, D.C., Police Chief Richard Sylvester with the plans and schedule for President Roosevelt’s upcoming trip to New York.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-01

George B. Cortelyou outlines President Roosevelt’s upcoming travel plans for Secret Service Chief John E. Wilkie.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1901-11-01

President Roosevelt describes his trip to Pine Knot Cottage with Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, including two days of failed turkey hunting expeditions that finally succeeded on the third day. He ends by saying Secretary of State Elihu Root’s speech went well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-11-04

President Roosevelt updates Archibald B. Roosevelt on the activities of the family, in particular Quentin’s baseball playing and an Easter egg hunt. Roosevelt is glad that Quentin has taken up baseball, because he is “altogether too soft.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-19

President Roosevelt describes a 62-mile horse ride to Cheyenne, Wyoming, he took with Presley Marion Rixey, Senator Francis E. Warren, and Mr. Van Tassel, the owner of the ranch at which Roosevelt’s party ate lunch. After the ride, Roosevelt led a procession into Cheyenne and made a 45-minute speech at the city’s Memorial Day services. Roosevelt adds a post-script describing a second, 30-mile, horse ride to Warren’s ranch.

Collection

Massachusetts Historical Society

Creation Date

1903-05-31

President Roosevelt leads a group on horseback, brandishing a whip and charging. Following him are several figures from history and legend including a Roman warrior, the drunken Tam O’Shanter, Paul Revere, Don Quixote, and Sancho Panza. Also following the charge, in silhouette, are Ichabod Crane from Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a member of the Pony Express, and Lady Godiva. All the riders except Roosevelt are weary or exhausted.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The context of this illustration of a poem in Puck Magazine was the famous horseback ride of President Roosevelt in the last months of his presidency. Convinced that the leadership ranks of the United States Army were too “soft,” he demonstrated the sort of mettle he considered a minimum requirement for men in uniform. On the night of January 13, 1909, the 50-year-old president and three aides — his Military Aide Captain Archibald Butt; Naval Surgeon General Presley M Rixey; and Dr. Cary Grayson, Naval Surgeon —  rode on horseback to and from Warrenton, Farquier County, Virgina. They made the trip in record time, through storms of sleet and ice, much of the ride in the dark. They stopped for 10-minute “rests” and change of horses, except in Warrenton where they stopped for a full meal. Roosevelt made his point — a Rough Ride, certainly — and arrived at the White House about 4:00 the next morning, alone, covered in ice, and ready for a full breakfast and a day of work.

Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft stand in the center of a gathering of Roosevelt’s “officers.” Most are dressed as colonial army officers, with Charles J. Bonaparte dressed as Napoleon and John Burroughs as a frontiersman. All but Roosevelt are crying. Caption: Repetition, one year hence, of a famous scene in Fraunce’s Tavern.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Cartoonist Louis M. Glackens drew this prophetic cartoon in March of 1908, interesting for what it does not outright say, and significant for who it does and does not show, in the group gathered around President Roosevelt.

William H. Moody writes to President Roosevelt to examine the use of the word “command” versus “in charge” with respect to hospitals under the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery’s control. Admiral Rixey is an advocate of the change.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-07-23

Secretary of State Hay informs President Roosevelt of his travel plans.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-01-22