Yale University

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to A. Lawrence Lowell

Theodore Roosevelt introduces President of Harvard A. Lawrence Lowell to Owen Johnson, who wrote the stories about Lawrenceville and is working on a piece about university club and society problems. Roosevelt attests to Johnson’s honesty and asks Lowell to speak freely with him and refer him some students. He wants to meet and discuss the topic sometime with Lawrence.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-10

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt requested tickets to the Harvard-Yale football game and will send them to Kermit Roosevelt when they come. He sends a copy of the December 17, 1910 edition of The Outlook.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-25

Letter from Secretary of Theodore Roosevelt to Secretary of Harvard-Yale Football Match

Theodore Roosevelt’s secretary requests six tickets to the Harvard-Yale football game and will send payment after receiving them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-25

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Albert T. Sinclair

Theodore Roosevelt suggests that Albert T. Sinclair contact Professor Thomas R. Lounsbury at Yale and other college presidents for the answer to his question.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-17

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Eugene A. Philbin

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Judge Philbin for his letter and sends his love to Philbin’s family.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1916-04-04

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Isaiah Bowman

Theodore Roosevelt looks forward to receiving Professor Bowman’s book, then gives his opinion on William H. Taft. Roosevelt also makes reference to his disgust at President Wilson’s and Secretary of State Bryan’s handling of international relations.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-05-06

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Paul Underwood Kellogg

Theodore Roosevelt looks forward to seeing Paul Underwood Kellogg and asks that he read an article by the Englishman Jacks in the Yale Review, which comments on an article Roosevelt had sent Kellogg. Roosevelt finds Jacks’ article immoral and refers to Kellogg’s mention of the U.S. Constitution binding the states in unity. Roosevelt chastises Kellogg for not recognizing that “two million men” fought for that unity during the Civil War and that the U.S. is committed to going to war to protect that unity.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-05-06

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Isaiah Bowman

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Professor Bowman for his review of Roosevelt’s book Through the Brazilian Wilderness and invites him to lunch at Oyster Bay to discuss a foal and Bowman’s Forest Physiography book among other things.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-03-18

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Jacob Piatt Dunn

Theodore Roosevelt encourages Jacob Piatt Dunn to contact Alexander Smith Cochran for funding for a project to preserve “Indian languages.” 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-26

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Kermit Roosevelt

President Roosevelt celebrates Harvard’s victory over Yale in the football match. He tells his son Kermit that J. H. Patterson, who killed the man-eating lions of Tsavo, spent Friday at the White House. Carl Ethan Akeley, who has hunted elephants and rhinoceros, came to lunch the next day. Both gave valuable advice, and Roosevelt tells Kermit that they must be extremely cautious in Africa until they are used to what is being done. The arrangements are all made. Roosevelt also says that Kaiser William II has “come an awful cropper,” and been a “perfect fool.” The German people are finally angry about it. Roosevelt has finished the lectures he will be giving at Oxford and the Sorbonne. He hears that Senator Joseph Benson Foraker is preparing an attack against him, but he is indifferent.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-22

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to James Bryce

In an unofficial letter to British Ambassador Bryce, President Roosevelt expresses dismay at the decision of the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., to issue a formal statement regarding the controversy at the Olympics in London. Roosevelt strongly believes that no good can come from the British and American governments getting involved in the controversy, and says that he will not allow the American government to respond. However, the American Amateur Athletic Union wants to respond to the British statement, which feels like an official action from the government. Using as an analogy the animosity between Harvard and Yale resulting from a controversial football game, Roosevelt suggests that the two governments allow the matter to drop.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-25

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Benjamin Ide Wheeler

President Roosevelt was concerned by Benjamin Ide Wheeler’s letter, and wishes that what Wheeler said could be taught to some people on the east coast. He wishes that Arthur Twining Hadley, president of Yale University, had not chosen this particular moment to give honorary degrees to J. Pierpont Morgan and John C. Spooner. Roosevelt still thinks that William H. Taft will be elected all right.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-07-06

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Nicholas Murray Butler

President Roosevelt tells Columbia University President Butler that he is glad that Benjamin Ide Wheeler is going to be the next professor. Roosevelt notes that Yale President Arthur Twining Hadley has “suffered somewhat” because he has not gotten a personal letter from him this year. Roosevelt asks Butler to tell Wheeler to remind him about it.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-05

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Charles Hitchcock Sherrill

President Roosevelt will not let his “gloom at thirty years of Harvard’s defeat in athletics” make him surprised at the quality of scholarship from Yale. He believes that Yale’s Thomas R. Lounsbury is the foremost scholar in the country. He asks Charles Hitchcock Sherrill if he saw Owen Wister’s address at Harvard where he alluded to Gifford Pinchot. He also invites Sherrill and his wife to come to the diplomatic reception and dinner on January 9.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-01-01

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Ralph Delahaye Paine

As the college football season comes to a close, President Roosevelt admits that it is too sore a topic for him to discuss with members of the cabinet who graduated from either Harvard or Yale. This did not keep Williams College graduate Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield from making a joke at the Harvard football team’s expense, which “nearly produced a rift in our hitherto excellent relations.” Roosevelt will also forward Ralph Delahaye Paine’s earlier letter to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Beekman Winthrop.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-19

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Eugene A. Philbin

President Roosevelt congratulates Eugene A. Philbin on his son Stephen H. Philbin’s performance in a recent football game and invites them both to lunch.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-11-07

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to William Roscoe Thayer

Theodore Roosevelt writes to William Roscoe Thayer on the subject of criticism. Roosevelt feels that those who do are more aptly placed to be critics as to who do not, using the comparison that the authors of the Federalist were political doers who also criticized and acted. He then extends the metaphor to cover Harvard’s struggles in sports competitions with Yale and Cornell.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-03-01

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Endicott Peabody

President Roosevelt is anxious to have Kermit Roosevelt and Hall Roosevelt attend Alice Roosevelt’s wedding and suggests to Endicott Peabody, the rector of Groton School, that they take the Thursday evening train and return on Monday. Roosevelt feels Harvard University is mistaken about abolishing football outright and that clean sport can be secured if the president would interfere instead of waiting for the committees to act. He compares the collegiate football situation to Groton School and St. Mark’s School.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-01-23

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Endicott Peabody

President Roosevelt says that he agrees with Endicott Peabody about football. He asks if Peabody could write to Harvard Dean of Men Le Baron Russell Briggs, and see if it is possible to talk sense into their friends at Harvard. Roosevelt agrees with Peabody’s assessment of cheating and dirty play when comparing Harvard and Yale.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-01-27

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to Paul Joseph Dashiell

President Roosevelt says that everyone who has seen the play in question during the Harvard-Yale football game, officiated by Paul Joseph Dashiell, believes the action taken by James J. Quill against Francis H. Burr was deliberate. Roosevelt believes that this brutality on behalf of Yale secured them victory, and that brutality like this must be eliminated from the game.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1905-12-21