Walking

President Roosevelt, dressed in white, and his party walk up Gatun Hill in Panama.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-02

Owen Wister, author of The Virginian and other western novels, and a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt, appears outdoors on a country estate and seated at a desk. Wister walks toward the camera through trees on a large, sloping lawn. He comes out the front door of an ivy-covered, two-storied home onto a terrace, and sits on a stone bench. Wister picks a flower outside the doorway and puts it into his lapel. Location may possibly be Butler Place, a family estate in the vicinity of Philadelphia.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1920s

Columbia [the symbol of the United States] stands on the seashore with a small child who is wearing a hat labeled “Cuba.” Columbia has dropped a ribbon labeled “U.S. Protectorate” that is wrapped around the young girl’s waist, enabling her to walk without assistance.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Four years after the treaty that ended the Spanish-American War, on May 20, 1902, Cuba “seceded” from the United States and declared itself a republic. It did not gain complete freedom from the United States, however. In its constitution were provisions that granted the United States the right to intervene in certain internal affairs; and have a role in its foreign relations and economic affairs. Eventually, under the Platt Amendment, the United States was granted a lease for a military base at Guantanamo Bay. American concessions were guaranteed percentages of United States sugar imports; guarantees that increased through the years. Only in 1934 did Cuba gain a fuller measure of political and diplomatic freedom.

President Roosevelt updates his son Kermit on the goings-on at the White House, and his plans for the coming days. He and Edith had been riding regularly until it snowed, thawed, and froze. He hopes to play tennis with General Leonard Wood, Assistant Secretary of State Robert Bacon, and Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield, although the court may be too muddy. He recently took a “scramble walk” in Rock Creek Park with Representative Nicholas Longworth, Postmaster General George von Lengerke Meyer, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Beekman Winthrop, and Ambassador Henry White. He had a dinner with African big game hunters, and wishes that Kermit could have met Sir Harry Johnston. His labor dinner is tomorrow night.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-16

President Roosevelt welcomes General Wood back from his trip with the Atlantic Fleet. He would like to see Wood and his wife in Washington, D.C. He tells Wood about a walk through Rock Creek Park he took with fifty members of the General Staff and War College.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-10

President Roosevelt was sorry to hear about his son Ted’s accident from Anna Roosevelt Cowles. He hopes the injury is not too serious. Kermit Roosevelt is home from Harvard and seems to be doing well there. Yesterday Roosevelt took a “scramble down Rock Creek” with the General Staff and War College. Some of the “elderly and out-of-condition persons” had their work cut out for them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-08

President Roosevelt enjoys the letters that his daughter Ethel wrote to both him and his wife Edith. Kermit Roosevelt is home and has been jumping with Roswell, and they saw Ted at the election. Roosevelt tells his daughter about a scramble walk he took in Rock Creek Park with the entire General Staff and War College. Some men did well, while others who were not in condition struggled. Sir Harry Johnston, from the British Government, has been staying with the Roosevelts.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-08

President Roosevelt agrees with his son Archie that it is good that “Taft, Hughes, and Groton” were victorious. He updates Archie on his brother Quentin, who is doing very well at football and tennis, and is doing well in school. Kermit Roosevelt is home now. Roosevelt took a fall on a “scramble walk” in Rock Creek Park but was uninjured.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-08

President Roosevelt finds fault with the shoe manufacturing company Potbury & Lee for the boots they have made, as they were much too small. Roosevelt will keep one pair for his son, Kermit Roosevelt, but has no use for the other and therefore returns it. He also sends Potbury & Lee a pair of shoes that he asks them to duplicate exactly. He admonishes them for making a mistake about the boots, as they have based them on a pair of his city shoes, which he does not wear with large socks.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-07-15

President Roosevelt encloses a clip from the World about Justice Joseph E. Newburger, which explains itself. Roosevelt believes Newburger was either misquoted or joking, and informs Judge James W. Gerard that he told Newburger that Gerard was “an A-1 walker” and that he “not only walked, but climbed everything there was a chance to climb, and came in at the end fit for a fight or a frolic.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-10

President Roosevelt writes to W. Sloan Simpson to tell him about a visit from Cecil Andrew Lyon. Roosevelt wished to take Lyon on a walk, but everything is currently covered in ice.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-14

President Roosevelt is glad that his son Kermit Roosevelt liked his message, and has sent him a copy. Endicott and Fannie Peabody visited the White House recently, and the Roosevelts enjoyed their visit. Roosevelt says that he was able to go on several walks with Endicott Peabody, and tells Kermit a humorous story about an incident that occurred on one of the walks. Roosevelt also mentions a recent visit to the White House from some Native Americans.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-02-10

President Roosevelt agrees with his son Kermit’s thoughts on Nicholas Nickleby, and says that in general, he prefers novels that have joyous and noble aspects, rather than ones that are depressing and have sorrow, shame, and suffering in them. He updates his son on the activities at the White House, including a visit from African big game hunter Frederick Courteney Selous, and Quentin Roosevelt’s birthday celebrations.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-19

President Roosevelt is glad that his son Theodore Roosevelt visited Kermit Roosevelt at Groton School, and is glad that Kermit had a chance to play football this fall. He encourages him to “peg away” at his studies. He is having his “usual number of difficulties” that any President has, and has taken scramble walks in Rock Creek Park and gone riding with Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt. Roosevelt discusses the books that Edith is reading to Archibald B. Roosevelt and Quentin Roosevelt, and the books that he plans to read them in her absence.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-11-12

President Roosevelt tells William Emlen Roosevelt and Christine Griffin Kean Roosevelt how much he and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt enjoyed having William and Christine’s boys visit them. The president details a walk he took with William and Christine’s boys and Theodore Roosevelt, Kermit Roosevelt, and Archibald B. Roosevelt. He looks forward to seeing William and Christine at the inauguration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-01-04

President Roosevelt thanks Baron Coubertin for the book and the book dedication. The president discusses various sports in which he has participated and believes his life is too sedentary and that he likes to eat and drink too much. Roosevelt hopes that Coubertin will visit him while he is president and wants to ride and walk with him, suggesting they could include German Ambassador Hermann Speck von Sternburg as well.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-21

President Roosevelt invites Judge Hole on a walk when he is next in Washington, D.C.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-11-18

President Roosevelt invites Ambassador Sternburg to take a walk with him and Ambassador H. Mortimer Durand, but only if Mrs. Sternburg approves.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-05-13

President Roosevelt asks if Augustus Peabody Gardner would be willing to put Granville Fortescue up for membership in the Metropolitan Club and would like to go walking with him one day.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-12-07

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt makes plans with Leonard Wood for a walk.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1897-09-23