Background

Ethnicity: Theodore Roosevelt was of Dutch descent; his other ancestry included primarily Scottish and Scots-Irish, English and smaller amounts of German, Welsh and French.

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, in New York City, New York, the United States, to Theodore "Thee" Roosevelt Sr., of Dutch heritage, and Martha "Mittie" Bulloch, a Southern belle rumored to have been a prototype for the Gone with the Wind character Scarlett O'Hara. His family owned a successful plate-glass import business.

Education

Nicknamed Teedie, much of his early years were inflicted with illnesses and bouts of an asthma attack. However, he was hyperactive as a child and did not let his illness dominate. He trained himself in boxing to enhance physical strength. As a teenager followed a program of gymnastics and weightlifting to build up his strength. He also developed a lifelong fantasy for zoology when he was seven.

Roosevelt was home-schooled by private teachers but also traveled with his family frequently to Europe and the Middle East, including trips to Austria, England, France, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Prussia (Germany), Switzerland, and modern-day Syria. He also once lived with a host family in Germany for five months.

After being homeschooled, he enrolled at Harvard College in 1876. When his father died during his second year at Harvard College, Roosevelt channeled his grief into working even harder. After graduating magna cum laude in 1880, he enrolled at Columbia Law School. However, he did not show much interest in legal career. As such, when he was offered a chance to run for the New York Assembly, he immediately agreed, dropping out of college in 1881.

Career

Elected as a Republican to the New York State Assembly at 23, Roosevelt quickly made a name for himself as a foe of corrupt machine politics. In 1884, overcome by grief by the deaths of both his mother and his wife on the same day, he left politics to spend two years on his cattle ranch in the badlands of the Dakota Territory, where he became increasingly concerned about environmental damage to the West and its wildlife. After a brief period of hiatus, during which time he worked as a cowboy and cattle rancher, he returned to politics in 1886. In 1886, he ran for the New York Mayorship elections as a Republican candidate but lost the same to the Democratic candidate Hewitt.

In 1897 William McKinley named him as assistant secretary of the United States Navy. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Roosevelt left his post as naval secretary to become colonel of the First United States Volunteer Cavalry, known as the Rough Riders. Once in Cuba, Roosevelt led the Rough Riders in a brave, costly uphill charge in the Battle of San Juan; he returned home as one of the war’s most visible heroes.

In 1888, he was appointed to the United States Civil Service Commission, where he served until 1895. He became president of the board of New York City Police Commissioners in 1895 and during his two-year stint radically reformed the police department, which was considered as one of the most corrupt in America. In 1897, President William McKinley appointed Roosevelt to the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He played a significant role in preparing the Navy for the Spanish-American War.

His interest in the Spanish-American War led him to give up on his governmental post and organize a voluntary cavalry, which he named Rough Riders. He served as the Colonel for the Regiment. The Rough Riders bravely fought the Battle of San Juan Heights and succeeded. He was even nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor, America’s highest military honor for his courageous antics.

Despite returning to civil life, he was popularly referred to as Colonel Roosevelt. In 1898, he was elected as the Governor of New York. His growing popularity and progressive policies seemed to be endangered for the Republicans, who nominated him as the Vice Presidential candidate to McKinley in the 1900 presidential elections. Roosevelt campaigned vigorously for McKinley, traveling by train for more than 21,000 miles to speak in 24 states, and McKinley and Roosevelt won in a landslide over Democrats William Jennings Bryan and Adlai E. Stevenson.

On September 6, 1901, a deranged anarchist named Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died eight days later, and Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th president. Only 42 years old when he took office, he was the youngest president in the nation’s history, and his youth and vigor immediately transformed the public image of the presidency. From the time of his First Annual Message to Congress in December 1901, Roosevelt expressed the progressive belief that government should mediate between conflicting forces (including capital and labor, isolationism and expansionism, and conservation and development) in order to stabilize American society.

Roosevelt’s presidency is distinguished by his dedication to prosecuting monopolies under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Out of this commitment grew a benchmark of his first term, the "Square Deal" - a domestic program that embraced reform of the American workplace, government regulation of the industry, and consumer protection, with the overall aim of helping all classes of people. Roosevelt's charismatic personality and impassioned combination of pounding fists and emphatic rhetoric undoubtedly helped in pushing his agenda.

In 1905, Roosevelt walked his niece, Eleanor Roosevelt, down the aisle (Theodore's brother, Elliott, had died in 1894) during the wedding ceremony for Eleanor and her fifth cousin once removed, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Around the same time, believing that America needed to take its rightful place on the world stage, Roosevelt initiated a massive public relations effort. Engaging his unofficial policy of "Speak softly and carry a big stick," Roosevelt bulked up the United States Navy and created the "Great White Fleet," sending it on a world tour as a testament to the United States military power.

He also helped expedite the completion of the Panama Canal by providing tacit approval of the Panama revolution with funds and a naval blockade preventing Columbian troops from landing in Panama. President Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his role in negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Roosevelt believed that if Japan had devastated Russia, it would lead to an imbalance of power in the Pacific, one that the United States would eventually have to realign, but at a disastrous cost.

He pushed Congress to grant powers to the Interstate Commerce Commission to regulate interstate railroad rates. The Hepburn Act of 1906 conveyed those powers and created the federal government’s first true regulatory agency. Also in 1906, Roosevelt pressed Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection acts, which created agencies to assure protection to consumers. The "muckrakers," investigative journalists of the era, had exposed the squalid conditions of food-processing industries.

Roosevelt’s boldest actions came in the area of natural resources. At his urging, Congress created the Forest Service (1905) to manage government-owned forest reserves, and he appointed a fellow conservationist, Gifford Pinchot, to head the agency. Simultaneously, Roosevelt exercised existing presidential authority to designate public lands as national forests in order to make them off-limits to commercial exploitation of lumber, minerals, and waterpower. Roosevelt set aside almost five times as much land as all of his predecessors combined, 194 million acres (78.5 million hectares). In commemoration of Roosevelt’s dedication to conservation, Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and Theodore Roosevelt Island in Washington, D.C., a 91-acre (37-hectare) wooded island in the Potomac River, were named in his honor.

For the next couple of years (1909-1910), he embarked on a tour, including one as a special ambassador to England. Upon returning, he was disappointed with Taft’s handling of government and decided to run for the presidency. However, since Taft was running as the Republican candidate, he sought to start a new party and run from it. He initiated the Progressive or Bull Moose Party and started campaigning for the 1912 elections. It was during the campaigning that he barely escaped an assassination attempt by John Nepomuk Schrank. He lost the elections to Woodrow Wilson in a close call.

During World War I, he jumped back to the political scene, frustrated at Wilson’s stand for neutrality. He strongly supported the Allies and demanded a harsher policy against Germany. When the United States entered the war, he beseeched to head the volunteer division for service in France but was denied. In 1916, he again considered running for the presidential seat but gave up in favor of Republican Party nominee Charles Evans Hughes.

Political career aside, he had published about 25 books in his lifetime, touching a range of subjects including history, geography, biology, and philosophy. He even published a biography and autobiography, Rough Riders. His most ambitious book was The Winning of the West, which comprised of four volumes.

Achievements

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  Roosevelt's energetic vision helped bring the nation into the new century. During his rule, the country transformed much, dealing with several issues related to civil rights, racial discrimination, and women's suffrage. Adorned with two of the highest decorations, the Nobel Peace Prize and the Congressional Medal of Honor. To date, he is the only president to be honored with America’s highest military honor.
  
  Roosevelt was one of the most significant leaders of America who changed the face of the nation throughout the world. America owes nearly 200 million acres of national forest and parkland to his foresight - some of which can be viewed atop Mount Rushmore, where Roosevelt's visage is carved in memorial.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Wilderness Hunter, An Account of the Big Game of the United States and Its Chase with Horse, Hound, and Rifle

    (In connection with his personal experiences as a ranchman...)

    1902
  • The Strenuous Life

    (The Strenuous Life is a collection of essays and speeches...)

    1900
  • Good Hunting: In the Pursuit of Big Game in the West

    (Written in the late nineteenth century and first publishe...)

    1907
  • Oliver Cromwell: The Story of His Life and Work

    (The interest of this book lies mainly in the personality ...)

    1900
  • The Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt

    (Regarded as one of the greatest presidents of The United ...)

    1913
  • The Naval War of 1812

    (First published in 1882, The Naval War of 1812 establishe...)

    1882
  • Hunting Trips of a Ranchman: Sketches of Sport on the Northern Cattle Plains

    (This book focuses on Roosevelt’s life as a hunter in the ...)

    1885
  • Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century

    (Teddy Roosevelt is the only president in history to deliv...)

  • Through the Brazilian Wilderness: An Account of the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition

    (This book is an account of a zoo-geographic reconnaissanc...)

  • Fear God and Take Your Own Part

    (Fear God and Take Your Own Part is the title of this 1916...)

    1916
  • Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail

    (No other president grew to know and love the West like Th...)

    1888
  • African Game Trails

    (In this must-read memoir, Roosevelt recalls exciting hunt...)

    1909
  • American Ideals: And Other Essays, Social and Political

    (This book contains the following essays: I. American Idea...)

    1896
  • The Rough Riders 1899

Religion

Theodore Roosevelt believed in God and believed that people needed to read every-book they could get their hands on, including the bible. Roosevelt was a regular churchgoer, having been raised in the Dutch Reformed Church. Roosevelt’s beliefs were based on his viewpoint that if you were not God-fearing you might consider yourself above the laws of man.

Roosevelt was a lifelong devotee to this faith. However, during large stretches of his life, he was unable to physically find a church to attend. Thus, he often attended Episcopal services, as his wife was an Episcopalian.

Politics

In contrast to those who served before him, Roosevelt believed the president had the power to act except in areas specifically prohibited by law or granted in the Constitution to Congress or the Courts. He put this approach to good use in 1902 when he negotiated a settlement to the anthracite coal strike, the first time the federal government intervened in a labor dispute and recognized the rights of organized labor.

Roosevelt also negotiated with Congress to see the Pure Food and Drug Act passed in 1906, putting in place many safeguards Americans take for granted today involving food safety, quality controls in manufacturing, and drug labeling. In addition, he fought against unfair trade practices, establishing precedents for the president’s intervention in business, trade, and consumer affairs.

In international affairs, Roosevelt also acted boldly and decisively. As President, Roosevelt adopted an aggressive foreign policy, but he also saw America as deserving of a role as a global peacemaker. In 1906, he convinced Japan and Russia to attend a peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire to end their conflict.

Realizing that the Navy needed to be able to move ships quickly between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, he acted to recognize the fledgling country of Panama, negotiate control of the Canal Zone and push to see the Panama Canal built, one of the grandest engineering projects of the 20th Century.

Views

A lover of the outdoors, Roosevelt made protecting the natural wonder of American territory a priority. Roosevelt was a conservationist. As president, he created the United States Forest Service and established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reservations, four national game preserves, five national parks, and 18 national monuments. In total, he protected approximately 230 million acres of public land.

Roosevelt was a supporter of the growing suffrage movement that happened under his watch, though the 19th Amendment (giving women the right to vote) didn’t happen until a couple of years after he left office. Roosevelt also supported desegregation in the South, though it would be decades after his death until that occurred. Furthermore, he was the first president to invite a black person to the White House - Booker T. Washington.

Membership

While a Harvard undergraduate, Roosevelt won the election into the Hasty Pudding Club, and he was the social club’s secretary during his senior year. Roosevelt was one of five presidents - the others being John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy - to have been a club member.

• Hasty Pudding Club

Personality

Theodore Roosevelt had a photographic memory. He could recite pages from a newspaper he had just read as if he were reading from it. He was also a speed reader and would read two to three books a day. Roosevelt never smoked cigarettes and neither did he ever use tobacco in any form. He suffered from depression for all of his adult life.

His first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, and his mother, Martha Stewart "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt, both died on the same day, February 14, 1884, eleven hours apart. Alice died two days after giving birth to their first child, Alice Lee Roosevelt, of a combination of childbirth and kidney disease, and Mittie died due to Typhoid Fever. In his personal diary, on that day, he wrote a large X, and one sentence, "The light has gone out of my life."

Virtually all of our presidents have retained their modesty, but Roosevelt was never bashful about abandoning his clothes for a quick, naked dip in the water. While walking near the Potomac River in 1903, the president and the Chief of the Division of Forestry, Gifford Pinchot, jumped in for a swim, leaving their clothes behind. The French ambassador was with them, though he elected to keep his gloves on because "we might meet ladies!"

His family called him "Teedie," in part to distinguish him from his father. The name stuck until well into his late teens. Friends began calling him "Teddy" in his college years, though it has been documented that Roosevelt didn't care for that. He preferred "TR" or "Colonel."

Roosevelt loved coffee. According to his family, Roosevelt's coffee cup was akin to a "bathtub," and he sweetened each cup with seven lumps of sugar. He was such a fan of the beverage that Maxwell House once put his face on some of their print ads.

Physical Characteristics: Roosevelt became blind in one eye after a boxing injury while in the White House. A practice he started while the governor of New York, Roosevelt invited He enjoyed boxing with young military aides. In 1908, at age 50, his opponent landed a punch to his left eye that caused severe hemorrhaging, resulting in a detached retina. The incident was kept a secret though to protect the identity of the sparring partner. In his autobiography he wrote, "Fortunately it was my left eye, but the sight has been dim ever since, and if it had been the right eye I should have been entirely unable to shoot."

Interests

• zoology, biology

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Aristotle

• Politicians

  Gifford Pinchot

• Writers

  The Influence of Sea Power upon History by Alfred Thayer Mahan, American Revolution by George Otto Trevelyan, The Woman Who Toils by Bessie Van Vorst, Sevastopol Sketches by Leo Tolstoy, With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz

• Artists

  John Singer Sargent

• Sport & Clubs

  Jujitsu, football

• Music & Bands

  Bessie Smith

Connections

Theodore Roosevelt delighted in being president, but he took even greater satisfaction from his role as husband and father. He first tied the nuptial knot with Alice Hathway Lee of Massachusetts in 1880. Alice died unexpectedly just two days after the birth of their only child, Alice.

The tragic death of his wife on February 14, 1884, led him to remarry in 1886 to his childhood friend, Edith Kermit Carow. The two, by all accounts, enjoyed a happy and flourishing relationship for more than 30 years. Together, they raised five of their own children.

Father:

Theodore Roosevelt Sr.

Theodore Jr. regarded his father "as the ideal man." He also fondly recalled his father’s patient and loving care as Teedie battled frequent asthma attacks. In time, Theodore Sr. challenged his namesake "to make his body" and overcome his infirmities. Eager to please the father he adored, Theodore Jr. committed himself to a regimen of vigorous physical activity, a routine that remained with him well into adulthood. After a confrontation with bullies who pummeled Theodore Jr., Thee encouraged his son to take up boxing.

Mother:

Martha "Mittie" Bulloch

Martha "Mittie" Bulloch was considered a true southern belle who possessed great beauty, charm, and spirit. It is believed that the character of Scarlett O'Hara in Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind is partly based on her. Mittie was an unreconstructed confederate until the day she died.

late wife:

Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt

After Alice's death and funeral in 1884, Roosevelt returned to work in the New York State legislature, in grief, and never spoke his deceased wife's name, or talked about her, for the rest of his life.

Daughter:

Alice Roosevelt

The eldest of Roosevelt’s children - and the only one with his first wife, Alice - Alice Roosevelt was 17 when her father took office and quickly became infamous for a series of public indiscretions. She was fond of smoking cigarettes on the roof of the White House after her father told her she couldn’t smoke indoors; she walked around with a boa constrictor on her neck. Alice’s carefree attitude made her a celebrity in her own right, with one color - Alice blue - named after her. Active in Washington until her death at age 96, Alice was known as "the other Washington monument."

Wife:

Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt

Edith was raised not far from the Roosevelts in New York City. By their teenage years, Edith and Theodore Roosevelt became so close that he may have proposed marriage. But he fell in love with Alice Hathaway Lee. Edith determined to be friends with both of them, even after Roosevelt married Lee in 1880.

Alice died in 1884, leaving Theodore a widower. He rekindled his connection with Edith and the two married in London on December 2, 1886, and went to live at Sagamore Hill on Long Island, New York.

Edith Roosevelt enjoyed being First Lady of New York. She modernized the governor’s mansion, joined a local woman’s club, and continued to assist with her husband’s correspondence.

Son:

Kermit Roosevelt

Kermit shared his father’s wit, mastery of language, and passion for outdoor activities and exploration.

Brother:

Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt

Elliott was the father of First Lady Anna Eleanor Roosevelt and the younger brother of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Sister:

Corinne "Conie" Roosevelt Robinson

Like her father before her, Corinne supported a wide array of charitable causes, particularly the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Corinne also supported Theodore’s political aspirations, frequently hosting dinner parties and round-table discussions in her home.

Sister:

Anna Roosevelt Cowles

Anna Roosevelt Cowles was Theodore Roosevelt’s elder sister. Anna had always been a staunch supporter of Theodore’s political career. In 1901, when he became president of the United States after William McKinley’s assassination, her home became an important second White House for Roosevelt.

He met his Cabinet there initially, as Mrs. McKinley had not yet moved out of the executive mansion. At Anna’s, he could entertain friends and associates whose moral standards did not meet the new First Lady’s approval. The Cowles home was a private retreat for Theodore Roosevelt where he regularly sought the advice of his sister.

Son:

Theodore "Ted" Roosevelt, Jr.

Theodore was the eldest son of Theodore and Edith Kermit Roosevelt. Ted shared his famous father’s passion for hunting, exploration, and soldiering.

Daughter:

Ethel Carow Roosevelt Derby

Ethel was very close to her parents and remained at the center of the family even after Edith died in 1948. She donated considerable time and energy to organizations such as Christ Episcopal Church and the Nassau County Nursing Service in Oyster Bay.

Son:

Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt

Archibald Bulloch Roosevelt was the third son of Theodore and Edith Kermit Roosevelt. Like his father and brothers before him, Archie attended Harvard where he played a leading role in the preparedness movement on campus.

Son:

Quentin Roosevelt

Quentin Roosevelt was the youngest son of Theodore and Edith Kermit Roosevelt. He was shot down and killed by a German Fokker plane over the Marne River in France.

niece:

Eleanor Roosevelt

Both before and after her parents died, Eleanor visited Sagamore Hill and so spent time with her Uncle Theodore, Aunt Edith, and her Roosevelt cousins. She was the same age as her cousin Alice, and the two girls played together well. Theodore taught Eleanor how to swim, just as he did his own children.

Theodore Roosevelt often held up Eleanor as an example of appropriate behavior to his own wayward daughter. Eleanor was occasionally invited to White House events - including Roosevelt’s 1905 inaugural - but her social circle did not usually overlap Alice’s.

Friend:

Gifford Pinchot

Gifford Pinchot and Roosevelt were close friends and shared their views on conservation.

Friend:

Edith Wharton

Wharton involved Roosevelt in some of her charitable work, including a committee on tuberculosis in 1904 and much of her work during World War I. Roosevelt wrote an introduction to a 1916 collection Wharton edited, The Book of the Homeless, from which the profits went to war refugees.

Friend:

Jane Addams

Theodore Roosevelt visited Hull-House several times during and after his presidency and he and Addams became political allies. They worked closely together on Roosevelt’s 1912 presidential campaign, as Addams was heavily involved in the Progressive Party.

References

• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt This classic biography is the story of seven men: a naturalist, a writer, a lover, a hunter, a ranchman, a soldier, and a politician - who merged at age forty-two to become the youngest President in history. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt begins at the apex of his international prestige.
  1979
• The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History The surprising story of intrepid naturalist Theodore Roosevelt and how his lifelong passion for the natural world set the stage for America's wildlife conservation movement. Perhaps no American president is more associated with nature and wildlife than Theodore Roosevelt, a prodigious hunter, and adventurer, and an ardent conservationist.
  2016
• Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography Pringle’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography not only chronicles the incidents that shaped Roosevelt’s career but also offers insight into the character and mind of this colorful American president.
  1931
• Colonel Roosevelt Of all our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of office. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin’s bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?
  2010