Theodore Roosevelt Center

Theodore Roosevelt Center Explore the life and achievements of the 26th President of the United States online!

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in 1903, President Roosevelt delivered remarks at the consecration of Grace Memorial Reformed Church in Washington, D....
06/07/2026

in 1903, President Roosevelt delivered remarks at the consecration of Grace Memorial Reformed Church in Washington, D.C., where he regularly attended services during his presidency.

Roosevelt implored the congregation to live up to their duty as faithful Christians to live up to their words with deeds, and not to commit evil acts in the name of their faith.

"... let us so far as strength is given us make it evident to those who look on and who are not of us that our faith is not one of words merely; that it finds expression in deeds. One sad, one lamentable phase of human history is that the very loftiest words, implying the loftiest ideas, have often been used as cloaks for the commission of dreadful deeds of iniquity. No more hideous crimes have ever been committed by men than those that have been committed in the name of liberty, or order, of brotherhood, of religion. People have butchered one another under circumstances of dreadful atrocity, claiming all the time to be serving the object of the brother hood of man or of the fatherhood of God. We must in our lives, in our efforts, endeavor to further the cause of brotherhood in the human family; and we must do it in such a way that the men anxious to find subject for complaint or derision in the churches of the United States, in our Church, may not be able to find it by pointing out any contrast between our professions and our lives."

Read the full address at the American Presidency Project: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-consecration-grace-memorial-reformed-church

in 1906, President and First Lady Roosevelt attended the commencement exercises of the National Cathedral School for G...
06/06/2026

in 1906, President and First Lady Roosevelt attended the commencement exercises of the National Cathedral School for Girls in Washington, D.C.

"Keep steadily before you the ideal of homely duty, well performed," Roosevelt said in his address. "Let your ideal be one of service toward others, but of service rendered in a spirit of entire self-respect. The first lesson for any one to learn is unselfishness of thoughtfulness for others, of effort to do what is best and most pleasant for others. Yet even this unselfishness can do, in the long run, no good to other people if you fail in good sense, if you grow weak or morbid, or do not preserve your own self-respect."

Have you played Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and thought to yourself, “Wow. I bet I could make a cool Theodore Roose...
06/05/2026

Have you played Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and thought to yourself, “Wow. I bet I could make a cool Theodore Roosevelt!” Well, the Theodore Roosevelt Center’s archivist, Ally Hecht, did just that! So far, she’s fed her presidential “Mii TR” fried chicken and peaches (his favorite foods), gifted him a bird feather (he loved birds) and a pet lion (TR collected several lions while on safari in 1909-1910, and several were displayed at the Smithsonian Museum). Mii TR also yells out "Bully!" and "I'm deee-lighted!" while running around the Tomodachi island with his young friend, Mii Samantha Parkington (a Progressive Era American Girl Doll).

Read more about Ally’s Mii Theodore Roosevelt on Substack at: https://ow.ly/2pUm50Z85w6

If you make a Mii version of Theodore Roosevelt on your Tomodachi island, share it with us on our socials! We can’t wait to see what Roosevelts you create!

Today is ! Created by the United Nations in 1972, it is a day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect...
06/05/2026

Today is ! Created by the United Nations in 1972, it is a day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect the global environment, for ourselves and for future generations.

Theodore Roosevelt was concerned about the damage done by those who would extract and waste resources without regard for the harm to the environment or the need to preserve a balanced, healthy ecosystem for the sake of prosperity. In his 1908 speech "Conservation As A National Duty," he said:

"We have become great in a material sense because of the lavish use of our resources, and we have just reason to be proud of our growth. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils shall have been still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields, and obstructing navigation. These questions do not relate only to the next century or to the next generation. One distinguishing characteristic of really civilized men is foresight; we have to, as a nation, exercise foresight for this nation in the future; and if we do not exercise that foresight, dark will be the future! We should exercise foresight now, as the ordinarily prudent man exercises foresight in conserving and wisely using the property which contains the assurance of well-being for himself and his children."

TR is pictured here with John Muir and others at the base of the Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia tree in Yosemite National Park, in 1903.

06/05/2026

Wave the flag, wave the flag, wave it high/and be proud, proud out loud, that it's your flag!

Join us in waving the flag at Dickinson State University as we perform the spirit-rousing musical "Teddy and Alice," July 2-6!

Get more information and your FREE TICKETS here: https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/teddy-and-alice/

in 1943, Theodore Roosevelt's son Kermit tragically passed away.As a child, Kermit was precocious and worked hard to p...
06/04/2026

in 1943, Theodore Roosevelt's son Kermit tragically passed away.

As a child, Kermit was precocious and worked hard to prove himself to his parents, academically and physically. He shared his father’s wit, mastery of language, and passion for outdoor activities and exploration. He also followed his father's path into authorship and editorial work. But, also like his father, he suffered from depression, which resulted in alcoholism. While serving in a military intelligence position at Fort Richardson in Alaska, he took his own life.

Learn more about Kermit in our online encyclopedia: https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/encyclopedia/family-and-friends/kermit-roosevelt/

Today there are so many ways to describe life: an exciting adventure, a mountain climb, a blank canvas, or even a roller...
06/03/2026

Today there are so many ways to describe life: an exciting adventure, a mountain climb, a blank canvas, or even a roller coaster. But Theodore Roosevelt’s preferred metaphor for life might surprise you, as it’s none of the above!

Rather, today’s was his metaphor for life: “You often hear people speaking as if life was like striving upward toward a mountain peak. That is not so. Life is as if you were traveling a ridge crest. You have the gulf of inefficiency on one side and the gulf of wickedness on the other, and it helps not to have avoided one gulf if you fall into the other.”

It might surprise you to learn that this quotation comes from Roosevelt’s address at Groton School in 1904 that features his famous “eyes on the stars” line. While today’s Wednesday Wisdom isn’t the most famous line, we think it invokes a compelling visual image.

When approaching life, Roosevelt valued both practicality—what he would call efficiency or effectiveness—and decency. To him, it didn’t matter what a person did, whether they were the president or a stay-at-home mom. What mattered to Roosevelt was that they did it well and decently—in other words, staying on the ridge crest and avoiding the gulfs on either side.

As a final note, while Roosevelt described life as a ridge crest here, he seemed to invoke more of a mountain climb approach to life in other cases, which likely would have been your first guess for Roosevelt’s chosen metaphor for life. But the fact that he used both points to his multifaceted understanding of life.

You can read the entire speech, which is full of great lines here: https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o285148/

in 1897, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt delivered an address regarding "Washington's Forgotten Max...
06/02/2026

in 1897, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt delivered an address regarding "Washington's Forgotten Maxim" before the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island.

Roosevelt, a lifelong advocate for a strong navy and military preparedness, argued that the United States had shirked in its duty to prepare for war, and that those who feared becoming too aggressive were misguided.

"In this country there is not the slightest danger of an overdevelopment of warlike spirit, and there never has been any such danger. In all our history there has never been a time when preparedness for war was any menace to peace. On the contrary, again and again we have owed peace to the fact that we were prepared for war; and in the only contest which we have had with a European power since the Revolution, the War of 1812, the struggle, and all its attendant disasters, were due solely to the fact that we were not prepared to face, and were not ready instantly to resent, an attack upon our honor and interest; while the glorious triumphs at sea which redeemed that war were due to the few preparations which we had actually made. We are a great peaceful nation; a nation of merchants and manufacturers, of farmers and mechanics; a nation of workingmen, who labor incessantly with head or hand. It is idle to talk of such a nation ever being led into a course of wanton aggression or needless conflict with military powers by the possession of a sufficient navy."

Read the full address at the U.S. Naval Institute website: https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1897/july/washingtons-forgotten-maxim

We get a lot of questions about “the other Roosevelt” here at the Theodore Roosevelt Center. The other Roosevelt being F...
06/01/2026

We get a lot of questions about “the other Roosevelt” here at the Theodore Roosevelt Center. The other Roosevelt being Franklin Delano Roosevelt, of course. So we thought it worthwhile to compile some basic facts about the two Roosevelts in a social media post.

Theodore and Franklin were fifth cousins. Since they were a generation apart, Franklin interacted more with Theodore’s children as well as nieces and nephews. For example, the earliest letter from Theodore to Franklin in the digital library is dated June 11, 1897. Theodore, then thirty-eight-year-old Assistant Secretary of the Navy, invited his fourteen-year-old cousin Franklin, who was attending Groton School at the time, to visit Sagamore Hill.

Theodore and Franklin’s family connection deepened in late 1904 when Theodore’s niece, Eleanor, became officially engaged to Franklin. Theodore celebrated the engagement, writing to the man who raised Eleanor after Eleanor’s father died: “I am delighted at the engagement of Eleanor and Franklin. Few things could have given me greater satisfaction.”

Although they belonged to different parties, Theodore supported his fifth cousin’s political career, writing to his sister Bamie on August 10, 1910, “Franklin ought to go in politics without the least regard as to where I speak or don’t speak. . . . He is a fine fellow; but I wish he had Joe’s [Theodore’s nephew] political views.” Theodore also fastidiously protected Franklin’s political career and would avoid being seen with his cousin when the former felt it would be politically disadvantageous for the latter.

When Franklin was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy on March 17, 1913, Theodore sent him a congratulatory note, remarking, “It is interesting to see that you are in another place which I myself once held.” We think Theodore would have been quite interested to see how Franklin’s later political career as governor of New York and president mirrored his own.

Although they were related, there are few photographs of Theodore and his fifth cousin together. According to a 1990 TRA Journal article, there are only two known photographs, both of which we have included in this post. One is when Theodore returned to New York after the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition (Franklin is to the far right) while the other is of the two on the way to the 1915 libel trial against New York Republican leader William Barnes.

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