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Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from October 1858 to December 1870. Notable events include the Roosevelt family’s involvement in the American Civil War, Theodore Roosevelt meeting John Hay as a child, and the Roosevelt family’s first European trip.
Theodore Roosevelt Association
1985
President Roosevelt and Speaker of the House Joseph Gurney Cannon shy away from scary toys, as William Loeb watches from behind an iron fence. Frightened also are Senator Philander C. Knox, and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks. William Jennings Bryan holds a “tariff revision” snake and a children’s toy labeled, “death to trusts.”
For a cartoon in the reliably Republican Washington Herald, Joseph Cunningham’s cartoon critically but realistically depicts Republican leaders as frightened little boys as the neighborhood bully scares them with a toy snake and a phony spider.
Two children play with toy animals. A teddy bear is balancing on top of a ball. Text at the top says, “Now Teddy! Put your best foot forth.” Reverse has a paid one cent postage with three dotted lines for an address. “A free trip abroad” in red letters is at the top of the card.
1901-1907
A ghost depicting Theodore Roosevelt stands behind the figure of Hugh Johnson, who wears the emblem of the National Recovery Administration. Roosevelt holds a hat in one hand, and in the other grasps several figures with labels on them which say “Malefactor of Great Wealth,” “Liar,” “Nature Fakir,” and “Undesirable Citizen.” He speaks to Hugh Johnson, who has two similar figures with labels in his hand, as well as another seven on the table in front of him, and says, “Hugh, you’re just bully! I was only a common piker!” The cartoon seems to suggest that while Roosevelt has a few terms he likes to “pull out of his hat,” so to speak, Johnson has many more that he uses in his invective.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1933-11-29
“Germania” and “Columbia” hold hands above and behind a child-like Otto von Bismarck who is tearing papers labeled “Lasker Resolution” while sitting on the floor. Around Bismarck are torn papers labeled “German Emigration” and “French Lampoon,” and a broken pull-toy of a pig labeled “American Pork” into which he has driven nails with a hammer labeled “Bad Temper.” Caption: Germania to Columbia – “We shall still remain friends, in spite of this foolish old man!”
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1884-02-27
A crowd of parents and children shop in the toy department of a department store at Christmas, where Santa Claus surrounded by a group of parents. Caption: “Bring the little ones; let them enjoy this wonderful Christmas Carnival to their hearts’ content.”–Extract from a department store adv.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1913-12-17
In the first two panels, Theodore Roosevelt is depicted as a young child in a dress and is crying. His nurse is standing holding a ball and then a jumping-jack. In the last panel, the nurse is holding a big stick and Theodore Roosevelt is smiling with his arms outstretched.
Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site
1907-05-15
Theodore Roosevelt, perspiring profusely, tries to keep a spinning William H. Taft labeled “Taft Boom” aloft with a “Diabolo,” by catching him on a string strung between two sticks and tossing him up again.
Humor, hilarity, and ridicule can supplement and reinforce a stark political observation; they can meet, and work well, in a good cartoon. And in this cartoon by Udo J. Keppler the juggling or circus toy derived from the Chinese yo-yo, called a “diabolo,” is the flimsy device by which an exhausted Theodore Roosevelt keeps the corpulent William H. Taft spinning in the air. And he must do so into the middle of 1908.
President Roosevelt had renounced a third consecutive term on election night, 1904. To best further his policies — or so he reckoned — and to forestall intra-party squabbling and delegate fights, Roosevelt publicly named and supported Secretary of War Taft as his successor.
J. Pierpont Morgan labeled “Flim-Flam Journalism,” John D. Rockefeller labeled “Flim-Flam Business,” and Edward Henry Harriman labeled “Flim-Flam Politics” gather around a table watching a toy of Theodore Roosevelt sitting on an egg-shaped base labeled “Personal Popularity” rocking back and forth.
The Wobble, a child’s toy of amusement and not skill, was patented in 1906 and was popular when this cartoon was drawn. They were made of tin or wood or paper mache (especially its clone, the Roly Poly) and children were frustrated or amused when the figures proved impossible to fall.
Trust magnates were frustrated too with a Theodore Roosevelt wobble toy when all their best attacks against the president were fruitless. The efforts of Roosevelt’s opponents like J. P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Edward Henry Harriman were often conducted through surrogates. This presumably is the reason why the moguls are not identified in the cartoon by their famous empires — banking, oil, and railroads, respectively.
Two children are surrounded by broken toys. The toys are pointing fingers at the children and complaining to Santa Claus about the treatment they’ve received from them over the past year. Santa is sitting on the right, reading a large book labeled “Condition of Last Years Toys.” Caption: Indignant Chorus of Last Year’s Toys — Do they deserve anything more, Your Honor? Just look what they did to Us!
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1911-12-06
President Taft stands behind a chair on which a diminutive George W. Wickersham is standing. Wickersham is using a stick labeled “Sherman Law” to beat a toy labeled “Monopoly” on the table in front of him. The toy shows a wealthy businessman holding money bags sitting in a bowl. Hanging on the wall is a “Sectional View” of the toy showing that it is weighted at the bottom with “High Protection,” stating “The Reason Why” it does not stay down when Wickersham hits it.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1911-11-08
Illustration shows rows of toys, dolls, teddy bears, soldiers and drummers, and trees.
The annual Christmas issue of Puck in 1906 was given to Frank A. Nankivell for its cover design. In recent years the holiday issues of the magazine were given to decorative or poster-like images. It made the special themes more widely attractive to readers and advertisers, especially downplaying politics and partisanship. These issues usually were more pages — often 32 or 48 pages instead of Puck‘s usual 16 — and carried more color cartoons and advertising.
Nankivell was born in Australia, where he drew cartoons for various publications before he moved to Japan, where he drew for the Tokio Puck (no relation to Joseph Keppler’s New York Puck), then drawing for newspapers and magazines in San Francisco and finally Puck in New York.
Theodore Roosevelt thanks his sister Anna for the toys she sent for Bill Sewall’s child. The round-up is finished and he is nearly finished with his book, Thomas Hart Benton. He has been offered a position as a teacher and he feels sorry for “Lizzie.”
1886-06-28
Theodore Roosevelt thanks his sister Anna for the news clippings she recently sent. He comments on how much he respects the “hardworking, labouring men” that work for him on his ranch. Roosevelt also asks Anna if she could possibly send some toys for Bill Sewall’s daughter who currently has none.
1886-05-15
German Emperor Wilhelm II holds the strings to a wooden jumping toy identified as “V. Waldersee,” field marshal in China; the latter wears a military uniform, decorated with many medals, and saluting with his left hand.
Field Marshall Alfred Ludwig Heinrich Karl Graf von Waldersee, Chief of the Imperial German General Staff, was appointed to lead the eight-nation coordinated military effort against the Boxer Rebellion in China. Among other aspects of their revolt, the Boxers had besieged the colony of international embassies. In fact his arrival in China followed the relief of the embassy compounds, but von Waldersee did pursue elements of the Boxers and defeated those pockets of rebellion. The German Kaiser found much to brag about in the person of von Waldersee.
Quentin Roosevelt writes to his mother Edith Roosevelt and describes in great detail a toy that he wants, and includes a small drawing of the toy at the end of the letter. Envelope included.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site
1904-07-30
President Roosevelt thanks his sister-in-law Emily Tyler Carow for the book that Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt got him on her behalf. The Roosevelts have had their “usual type of Christmas,” though with fewer toys as the children get older. Soon they will go to the Pine Knot cabin with friends. Roosevelt has much to worry him in his work, but the incidents “will all go downstream.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-26