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Henry V. D. Spicer asks Theodore Roosevelt about how many days he spent hunting during his trip to Africa, how many specimens he secured, and whether or not a catalogue is available.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-06-07
F. J. Skiff asks Theodore Roosevelt to lecture on his African expedition at the Field Museum of Natural History.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-01-30
Edmund Heller asks Theodore Roosevelt’s permission to lecture the various societies that have invited him to speak on his African safari work. He discusses describing the new species of small mammals collected in Sudan.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-11-26
Edmund Heller looks forward to Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to the National Museum of Natural History and showing him the specimens collected during his safari.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-11-17
J. Alden Loring cannot find the notes on the life histories of mammals that he let Theodore Roosevelt take when they left Gondokoro. Loring asks Roosevelt to send them to him at his home in New York when he has finished with them since Loring needs them to make his official report.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-03-20
Byron S. Hurlbut, professor and dean at Harvard, writes President Roosevelt to follow-up on a request for the collection entomological specimens during Roosevelt’s African safari. Hurlbut writes on behalf of fellow Harvard professor Roland Thaxler, speaks highly of Thaxler’s academic reputation, and encloses a letter from Thaxler.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-02-25
F. W. Taussig, professor of economics at Harvard, asks President Roosevelt to procure botany specimens during his upcoming African safari on behalf of fellow professor, Roland Thaxter. Taussig tells Roosevelt that any member of the expedition can take the samples for Thaxter, who would provide vials. Taussig assures Roosevelt that he can reject the request as Thaxter does not know about his letter, acknowledging many similar requests are probably weighing on Roosevelt.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-02-24
Roland Thaxter, professor of Botany at Harvard University, asks colleague and dean Byron S. Hurlbut if President Roosevelt would be interested in collecting insect specimens in Africa. Thaxter stresses that such collection would be extremely beneficial in expanding the field and supporting his research.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-02-22
Two moving picture firms are willing to offer their services on the Africa expedition in exchange for advertising their products. The firm in Chicago would claim the right of advertising that their machines had been taken on the trip. The New Jersey company would give more funds, send an expert to run the machine, and claim the use of the films. Edgar Alexander Mearns asks Theodore Roosevelt’s opinion on the offers.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-12
J. Alden Loring accepts that none of the African party aside from Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt will be able to write about the expedition or kill large game.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-05
J. Alden Loring thanks Theodore Roosevelt for selecting him to serve as a field naturalist on the African scientific expedition. Loring describes his plans to publish articles on the expedition, saying “a two column article occasionally would in no way conflict with your literary work.” Loring is in need of the money from publishing such articles.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-01-01
James J. Harrison offers Frederick Courteney Selous planning advice for President Roosevelt’s forthcoming African expedition.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-01
Edgar Alexander Mearns agrees to Theodore Roosevelt’s publication stipulations on the Africa expedition. Roosevelt’s publications must come first. In order to complete early preparations for the trip, Mearns requests an official order from the War Department outlining his duties. Mearns suggests other members of the American Museum staff who might be good candidates for the expedition. Mearns also asks Roosevelt whether he should make plans for the “systematic treatment of natives outside of your own party.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-08-04
Edgar Alexander Mearns is delighted to be reminded of his upcoming role as naturalist and medical adviser on Theodore Roosevelt’s trip to Africa. Mearns advises Roosevelt on approaches for sterilizing water, medical outfits, and equipment. Medicine for “native ‘boys’ and friends can be conveniently boxed.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-07-31
Frederick Courteney Selous sends his manuscript to President Roosevelt. He would be extremely grateful if Roosevelt could look over it and write a short introduction. There is no rush to return the manuscript as Selous is going on a bird nesting expedition to Asia Minor.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1907-04-27
Seven books, including two memoirs, are examined in six review essays in this edition of the “Book Notes” section. Michael L. Manson reviews two books on Theodore Roosevelt’s 1914 scientific expedition to Brazil; one penned by Roosevelt and the other by Joseph R. Ornig. Manson praises the forewords to both books written by Tweed Roosevelt, and he finds Ornig’s book provides a detailed look at the expedition and the cast of characters besides Roosevelt who made it successful. Stacy A. Cordery notes that journalist Joseph Alsop’s memoirs deal mostly with the major events and figures of the mid to late twentieth century, and she reveals Alsop’s opinions of various senators, presidents, and generals.
Richard P. Harmon faults Peter Collier’s The Roosevelts: An American Saga for focusing too much on the private lives of the two Roosevelt families, and he says that many of Collier’s assertions are not backed by evidence and that the book relies too much on a psychohistory approach. James Summerville asserts that H. Paul Jeffers’s look at Roosevelt’s tenure as Police Commissioner of New York City, Commissioner Roosevelt, disappoints and that readers should turn to Jay S. Berman’s study or to coverage of this period of Roosevelt’s career in biographies. John A. Gable provides a positive and short review of a short book, William H. Harbaugh’s fifty page history of Pine Knot, which Gable says is written with “charm and style.” Robert D. Dalziel, President of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA), reviews the memoirs of Hamilton Fish, a winner of the TRA’s Distinguished Service Medal. Dalziel says that Fish’s opinions are straightforward and blunt like their author.
Two photographs appear in the section: one shows three members of the Rio Roosevelt Expedition of 1992 and the other dignitaries of the Dutch government at the Roosevelt Study Center in the Netherlands.
Advertisement from Stackpole Books for two books by Theodore Roosevelt, Through the Brazilian Wilderness and Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter, and for Joseph R. Ornig’s account of Roosevelt’s expedition on the River of Doubt. The ad features cover illustrations for all three titles and includes brief summaries of each title as well as an order form.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1993-1994
The front cover of this issue of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal features a political cartoon by Thomas Nast from 1889 depicting Theodore Roosevelt as a cowboy trying to tame a horse branded “spoilsman” in reference to Roosevelt’s work with the Civil Service Commission. The back cover has two photographs of members of the Rio Roosevelt Expedition of 1992. One of the photographs shows expedition members displaying the flags of the organizations that sponsored the journey.
Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal
1992
Seven of the nine pages of this edition of the “News and Notes” section deal with the meeting, dinner, ceremonies, and reports from the annual meeting of the Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) held onboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt on October 31, 1992. Highlights of the meeting include the presentation of the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal to the members of the Rio Roosevelt expedition team; the conferring of the TRA’s Bertha B. Rose Award to Paul Whitney Parcells; and the inauguration of the TRA Junior Officer Leadership Award for a member of the crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. The section includes TRA President Robert D. Dalziel’s annual report, and it highlights the donation of Pine Knot, Theodore Roosevelt’s rustic retreat in Virginia, to the TRA by Theodore Roosevelt IV. “News and Notes” also covers programs held at the Sagamore Hill and Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Sites, and it details the performance of the cast of “Phantom of the Opera” onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Five photographs from the annual dinner and two photographs of Pine Knot supplement the text.
Buildings connected to Theodore Roosevelt make up much of this edition of the “News and Notes” section. The Theodore Roosevelt Association (TRA) acquired Roosevelt’s presidential retreat in Virginia, Pine Knot, and the federal government renamed the building housing the Office of Personnel Management the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building. “News and Notes” also highlights the premiere of a PBS documentary on the 1992 Rio Roosevelt Expedition; discusses the foreign policy focus of this issue TRA Journal; and notes the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
Two photographs of Pine Knot and three photographs of the ceremonies at the Theodore Roosevelt Federal Building appear in the section.