Theodore Roosevelt: His Places in the World; His Place in History

Hello, and greetings from North Dakota! My name is Erik Johnson, and I am the digital library coordinator and archivist here at the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State

University. How is everyone doing today? [Answers hopefully] Good, good. Well, I’m excited to be here to talk to you a little bit about Theodore Roosevelt and take a look at some of the primary sources we have.

Just to give you a little background about where I work before I jump into talking about

Theodore Roosevelt, the Theodore Roosevelt Center is a digital library that aims to collect and digitize any and all documents related to Theodore Roosevelt. The bulk of our materials are from the Library of Congress’s collection of Theodore Roosevelt’s papers, but we’ve also partnered with a variety of institutions and individuals across the country who have an interest in

Roosevelt. These include places ranging from Harvard University, where Roosevelt attended college, to a host of sites run by the National Park Service either related to or created by

Roosevelt, to Public Libraries, Historical Societies, and individual enthusiasts holding materials created by or related to Roosevelt. While some of our materials are available online in other places, the goal of our digital library is to bring all these items together in one virtual collection and describe them in order to make them much more easily found and used by researchers, scholars, and the general public.

Now, actually getting into today’s topic, Theodore Roosevelt was—before, during, and after his presidency—a figure of almost overwhelming vitality who came into contact with locations and events across the globe. Described by one of his friends as a figure of “pure act,”

Roosevelt was a naturalist, historian, author, hunter, and cowboy, in addition to being one of the most popular presidents in American history. Through the course of his life, Theodore Roosevelt touched a massive number of places—not only within the United States, but around the world— building his larger-than-life legacy we see today.

Before I get into talking about the areas TR touched and where he left his mark in history, do any of you have guesses about what sorts of places I might talk about? What sorts of places do you think of when you hear the name “Theodore Roosevelt?” [May hear guesses like Mount

Rushmore? San Juan Hill? Panama?] All right, those are all great! I heard a few people already mention a couple of the places I’m going to talk about! Now, If we had all the time in the world, we could go on for hours about all the places that Theodore Roosevelt went during his life, or where he is remembered today, but… we don’t have all day, so I made up a list of just a few of the places that I thought were the most important, interesting, or just a little less well known than others to talk about today.

To start, I thought I’d begin more or less chronologically with the Badlands of North

Dakota, which was significant not only in Roosevelt’s personal life, but which still claims strong ties to him today. Theodore Roosevelt is frequently quoted as having said that he would not have been president had it not been for his experience in North Dakota, and that it was in western

North Dakota that the “romance of [his] life began.” Roosevelt first visited the Badlands in

1883, at a time when traveling to the West to hunt buffalo was a trendy thing for “dudes from

New York” to do, and when the Dakota badlands were in the midst of a cattle boom. While hunting buffalo during this first visit to the badlands, Roosevelt was attracted to the prospect of investing in cattle ranching, and contracted some men to stock and run a cattle ranch for him before he returned to New York to serve as an assemblyman. More than simply being attracted to the potential profits of cattle ranching, however, Roosevelt fell in love with the land itself, with an acquaintance of Roosevelt later writing of Roosevelt’s “wild enthusiasm over the Bad Lands” and that “it had taken root in the congenial coil of his consciousness, like an ineradicable, creeping plant, as it were, to thrive and permeate it thereafter, causing him more and more to think the broad gauge terms of nature—of the real earth.”1

Both of these factors—Roosevelt’s investment in cattle ranching, and his love of the land—would provide him a safe haven to turn to after suffering both political defeat and the tragic deaths of both his wife and mother the following year. In June of 1884, Roosevelt turned to the Badlands, seeking an escape from his painful memories of New York in the solace of the wide open plains. During this period, Roosevelt threw himself into living life as a cowboy, writing “black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough,” and doing everything he could to beat back the sadness and despair that threatened to catch up with him. Much of this involved both riding and hunting, and here we can see a picture of Roosevelt with one of his horses from 1884, as well as a couple pages of his diary, one of which is filled with a list of the various animals that he hunted. As he spent more time here, Roosevelt grew fond of the rough landscape, writing to his sister Bamie that, “it certainly has a desolate, grim beauty of its own, that has a curious fascination for me. The grassy, scantily wooded bottoms through which the winding river flows are bounded by bare, jagged buttes; their fantastic shapes and sharp, steep edges throw the most curious shadows, under the cloudless, glaring sky; and at evening I love to sit out in front of the hut and see their hard, gray outlines gradually growing soft and purple as the flaming sunset by degrees softens and dies away; while my days I spend generally alone, riding through the lonely rolling prairie and broken lands.”2 So, you can definitely see that this sort of landscape touched something in Roosevelt, for him to have waxed poetic on the

1 Morris, Rise, 223. 2 https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Research/Digital-Library/Record?libID=o279999 sublimities of the landscape at such length, and indeed here and later in his life, Roosevelt was deeply moved by the beauty and majesty of natural landscapes.

Over the next couple years, Roosevelt started shifting back towards living in the East, but still spent a great deal of time in the Badlands, and was proud of his accomplishments there.

Even after marrying his second wife Edith and resuming elements of his life in the New York, he continued to return to the Badlands to go on hunting trips for many years.

While Roosevelt had already begun to develop a reputation even before he turned to ranching in North Dakota, this period of his life would stick with him, as his “cowboy” image would frequently surface. After assuming office in the wake of McKinley’s death, for example,

Mark Hanna remarked “Now look, that damned cowboy is President of the United States.” Here we can see a couple of the ways this has surfaced both during Roosevelt’s lifetime and after, with

Roosevelt appearing in advertisements, political cartoons, or in articles that TR himself wrote.

North Dakota played an important role in the life of Theodore Roosevelt, and it is also an important place in how he is remembered today. One of the things that Theodore Roosevelt is known for is his efforts promoting conservation, establishing the United States Forest Service

(USFS) and establishing a large number of national forests, parks, and monuments. Taking all of this into account, it shouldn’t come as too great of a surprise that the area where Roosevelt once lived and ranched is now a part of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and that it is the only national park named after a single person.

Beginning its existence as several regional parks worked by the Civilian Conservation

Corps, the Theodore Roosevelt National Park now consists of three distinct units (the northern and southern units, as well as a third unit where Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch was located), and memorializes both Roosevelt’s experiences living and ranching in the Badlands, as well as his efforts to conserve the natural environment through an interpretive center and several wilderness areas in both major units of the park. Here you can see some of the variety of materials the

Theodore Roosevelt Center has, from postcards and photographs of the park and surrounding area, to proposals for the park and the discussions that took place over its designation as a wilderness area to preserve the sort of nature that Theodore Roosevelt himself would have witnessed.

Now, if the Dakota Badlands represent a formative location in Roosevelt’s life that he is still associated with, the same can be said of San Juan Hill and Kettle Hill as colonel of his

“Rough Riders.” While he had already gained some renown (or notoriety, depending on who you spoke to) prior to his service here, his military service certainly helped contribute towards his election as governor of New York, his choice as a vice-presidential candidate, and his eventual assumption of the presidency itself. Bradley Gilman writes, in his book Roosevelt: the

Happy Warrior, that once a classmate of Roosevelt “asked Roosevelt what act or experience of his past had been most joyous. And Roosevelt, after a moment’s reflection, replied ‘The charge up San Juan Hill.’” Now, how many of you have already heard of Roosevelt as a “Rough

Rider,” or know when he led them up these hills? All right, good! It sounds like we have a couple people who have already learned about this time in Roosevelt’s life [or edited, as necessary]! Roosevelt led this regiment during the Spanish American War of 1898, when the

United States went to war with Spain. Have any of you heard the phrase “Remember the Maine, and to hell with Spain,” or heard of something called “yellow journalism?” […] All right, good!

That right, both of those are closely tied to the Spanish-American War, with the sinking of the

Maine in Havana Harbor serving as a major instigator of the conflict between the two nations.

During his time as assistant secretary of the Navy, Roosevelt had frequently advocated that the United States should increase its naval strength to make sure its military was prepared in case it found itself going to war, and also favored intervention in Cuba against the oppressive Spanish government. Once the United States began to move toward war with Spain, he saw an opportunity for him to give substance to his words, writing to one of his friends that “my power for good, whatever it may be, would be gone if I didn’t try to live up to the doctrines I have tried to preach.” While other members of the administration thought he was a bit crazy for leaving the safety of his desk for the front lines, such sentiment drove Roosevelt to advocate for the creation of the 1st United States Voluntary Cavalry Regiment, or what would eventually become known as “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.”

Roosevelt initially declined formal command of the regiment, citing his lack of experience in hard military organization, but he gladly took the position of second-in-command as lieutenant colonel behind his friend Leonard Wood. In spite of this, as Edmund Morris writes, while Roosevelt, “Secretary Alger, the President, and Congress might imagine Wood to be the true commander of the regiment, […] the American public was not fooled,” and quickly moved to give the regiment a host of Roosevelt-ian nicknames before settling on “Roosevelt’s Rough

Riders.”3 Eventually, as a result of illnesses in the army, Wood was promoted to command of the 2nd Brigade, elevating Roosevelt to the full colonelcy of his regiment shortly before what would prove to be his most famous battle.

The Battle of San Juan, and the Rough Riders’ charge up Kettle Hill and San Juan

Heights would prove to be one of Roosevelt’s defining moments, both personally and publically.

During this attack, Roosevelt led his men on a dangerous charge up these hills to dislodge the

Spanish forces and seize the high ground. Following the Spanish surrender of Cuba, Roosevelt

3 Morris, Rise, 614 wrote to a friend that “I would rather have led that charge and earned my colonelcy than served three terms in the United States Senate”4 Despite this downplaying of his political ambitions, however, Roosevelt returned to the United States “to find himself the most famous man in

America,” and found himself barraged with questions about his plans to run for governor of New

York. Even later, after his terms as president were over, Roosevelt valued his time as a rough rider and his position in the army, and once again adopted the title of Colonel. He even petitioned to be allowed to form a similar unit to fight in World War I.

The image of Roosevelt as a Rough Rider leading a charge up Kettle Hill became one of the most favored images used to depict Roosevelt during his lifetime —especially with political cartoonists—with the image of TR as a Rough Rider being variously applied to political campaigns, efforts to pass legislation, and various fights against trusts, railroads, or other powerful entities. Even when not specifically borrowing the image of Roosevelt on horseback, his Colonel’s uniform served as an instantly recognizable symbol, joining TR’s glasses and toothy grin as common iconography artists used to suggest Roosevelt’s presence or Roosevelt- ian ideas.

One of these uses of the Rough Rider imagery is actually applied here to another significant location in Roosevelt’s life and memory, with Roosevelt leading a group of “Rough

Diggers” to Panama to work on the Canal there. While Roosevelt’s presidency contained a host of notable moments—both internally and internationally—after he left office, he wrote that the one thing he felt that he “deserved most credit [for] in [his] entire administration was [his] action in seizing the psychological moment to get complete control of Panama.”5

4 Morison, 860 5 TR to Taft, 12/6/1910 The necessity of a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans had long been viewed as a matter of not if, but when by many Americans, both because of the influence it would have on trade, as well as increasing the mobility and power of the American naval forces in the case of war. Plans for constructing such a canal had been under discussion for several years by this point. While both Panama and Nicaragua had been discussed as possibilities, by early 1902 Roosevelt seems to have favored the Panamanian option, and, with the approval of

Congress, began to move forward trying to come to an agreement with the government of

Colombia, which controlled the area in Panama under consideration for the canal. These negotiations were frustrating for both the United States and Colombia, with both nations considering the other one to be making unreasonable demands, with Colombia asking for more money from the United States and being reluctant to give up a portion of its sovereignty, and the

United States, on its part, attempting to use its not insubstantial influence to muscle the

Colombian government into expediting the process and giving in to its demands.

Eventually, after the Colombian government had rejected the treaty allowing for the construction of a canal, Panama revolted and declared its independence from Colombia. While

Roosevelt and the American government may have not directly incited such a rebellion, the possibility of it was certainly understood by those in government, and there was a determination that, one way or the other, the United States would construct a canal connecting the Atlantic and

Pacific Oceans. Indeed, Roosevelt later declared in a letter that, “if they had not revolted, I should have recommended Congress to take possession of the Isthmus by force of arms.” As it was, however, the Panamanian people revolted (although still with some outside help), and the newly formed and recognized government proceeded to ratify a treaty with the United States allowing for the creation of the canal. This instance, along with Roosevelt’s earlier treatment of a dispute between several European nations and Venezuela, became part of the foundation of what came to be known as the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which situated the

United States as an “international police power” over its neighboring countries of Latin America, ensuring that they “act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political matters.”

Such policy leads to another image of Roosevelt that political cartoons give us—that of the international policeman, wielding his famous “big stick.”

Now, how many of you know where Roosevelt’s “big stick” comes from? Any ideas?

[…] All right, all right, I’ve heard some good guesses! The full quote, if you haven’t heard it, is

“speak softly and carry a big stick; you shall go far,” and it is actually an African proverb, which leads me into the next location that had an impact on Theodore Roosevelt’s life and shapes how he is viewed today. As I already said, Theodore Roosevelt was almost always full of energy, living what he called the “strenuous life,” so it should come as no surprise that he would continue to fill the years after his presidency with adventures. Even before the 1908 election,

Roosevelt knew that if he remained at home he might have a hard time not interfering (or seeming to interfere) in the presidency of his presumed successor William Howard Taft. With that thought in mind, Roosevelt arranged to go on a safari in East Africa, hoping to both appease his desire for adventure and to reach a place “where [the press] can’t get at me, and where I cannot hear what is going on” so that he couldn’t be accused [of wishing] to interfere with the methods of [his] successor.” As Roosevelt planned his safari and pulled together details for nearly a year, his expedition grew from merely a hunting adventure to a scientific expedition partially sponsored by the Smithsonian, and which would be accompanied by a variety of zoological experts, guides, porters, as well as one of Roosevelt’s own sons. In spite of his reputation placing him as a big game hunter, Roosevelt seems to have definitely wanted this expedition to be taken seriously as a scientific enterprise, saying frequently that his party killed only what they needed for use as scientific specimens or for use as food. Indeed, Roosevelt got many chances to communicate this, as well as the scientific benefits of his safari, as he documented his travels thoroughly in a series of articles that he wrote for Scribner’s Magazine.

These articles would later be compiled together into Roosevelt’s book African Game Trails.

This slide shows a part of this book in Roosevelt's own handwriting. We can also see what must have been his working title, “African Wanderings of a Hunter Naturalist,” which again puts equal billing with his hunting and naturalist pursuits. Nevertheless, Roosevelt’s reputation clearly preceded him, with many musical pieces being made like these, titled variously “Teddy after Africa,” “When Teddy got to Jungleville,” and “Teddy, the Jungle Bogie-Man,” or like this short cartoon I’ll show you in just a second! [Roll Video] As you may have guessed, there was a bit of truth to both of these perspectives. On one hand, Theodore Roosevelt did his best to collect and prepare a variety of specimens to send to the Smithsonian, which the institution long had on display. On the other hand, Roosevelt hunted a tremendous number of animals, sending tens of thousands of specimens to the Smithsonian, divided among “160 species of carnivores, ungulates, rodents, insectivores, and bats.”6 TR’s African Safari was a great adventure, and even though Roosevelt tried to avoid excessive press coverage, his safari was reported on extensively and Roosevelt was wildly celebrated when he returned to the United States in June 1910.

Roosevelt’s Safari was not, however, his last adventure. Just a couple months after

Theodore Roosevelt lost his bid as the Progressive Party candidate in the 1912 presidential election, Argentina’s Museo Social invited the ex-president to give a speech. This led to a South

American adventure that would prove to be one of Roosevelt’s most dangerous, and one which

6 https://naturalhistory.si.edu/onehundredyears/expeditions/SI-Roosevelt_Expedition.html resulted in a river getting named after him. Now, how many of you have looked at a map of the

Amazon rainforest? It’s really, really big—nearly the size of the contiguous United States. And if there’s one thing that Theodore Roosevelt liked, as he said in an 1886 speech, it was “big things; big parades, big forests and mountains,” and naturally big adventures. In the early 1900s, this jungle was largely unexplored—a big blank spot on the map—and one which promised to provide a veritable treasure trove of previously unrecorded plants, animals, and insects. As with his 1909 trip to Africa, Roosevelt turned to the American museum of Natural History to see if it might be possible to expand this speaking tour into an expedition that would help expand scientific knowledge. At this point in time, Roosevelt thought that this trip would be nothing more “than a ‘delightful holiday’ appended to a speaking tour, and one that would provide ‘just the right amount of adventure,’” by allowing him to travel some South American rivers and collect plant and wildlife specimens. When the Foreign Minister of Brazil, knowing Roosevelt’s love of adventure, asked why he didn’t consider going down an unknown river, though,

Roosevelt jumped at the chance. Such a drastic change of plans threw the expedition's sponsors and participants into an uproar. Nevertheless, Roosevelt persisted, and all the men who had signed on to his party stayed with him, and began adjusting things for the new expedition while

Roosevelt toured the continent giving speeches. Eventually, after almost two months, Roosevelt had finished all his public engagements and speaking tours, and was ready to begin his actual adventure.

Instead of the original path, which would have taken Roosevelt along several well- charted Amazonian Rivers, the new expedition was to take his party to the aptly-named Rio da

Dúvida, in English known as the River of Doubt. Among his traveling companions were his son

Kermit and Colonel Cândido Rondon, who had found the headwaters of the River of Doubt. Departing from Asunción, Paraguay, on December 10th, 1913, Roosevelt and his party made their way North on the Paraguay River for over a month, during which, as his assistant Frank

Harper notes here, the expedition party hunted some jaguar, collected numerous samples of the local animals, and had a small taste of what was to come in terms of the hot temperatures (which he says were recorded at 103 degrees in the shade), frequent downpours, biting insects, and travel delays. All this, however, was a prelude to the dangerous part of the journey. From

Tapirapoan, where the party rendezvoused on January 16, 1914, the expedition headed out on the several-hundred mile journey across the Brazilian Highlands to the headwaters of the River of

Doubt. This proved to be a difficult trek, as pack animals died, supplies had to be abandoned, and adjustments to the size of the party had to be made, as it became clear that, with the diminished supplies, there would be too many mouths to feed on the journey into the unknown.

On February 24th, the party arrived near the point at which they would depart down the river, and after some final days of making sure things were prepared, launched on the river itself on the

27th. For approximately the next two months, Roosevelt and the expedition (the portions that remained for this final exploration, at least) braved rapids, disease, low rations, threat of attack by natives, injury, and more. Because they were using heavy dugout canoes, every time the party came to rapids they had to laboriously portage around them, sometimes taking several days, depending on the extent of the rapids. This time on the banks of the river, rather than on it, exposed the men to additional dangers, including poisonous snakes, stinging insects, and an ominous threat of unseen natives, who they knew would very likely be hostile. Additionally, it introduced an added complication in that the forest seemed extremely sparse in terms of animals.

When the expedition was being planned, they men had made an assumption they would be able to supplement their food rations with game, and the failure of this assumption meant that their already meagre food stores would have to be stretched even thinner. Through it all (or at least through much of it), as in Africa, Roosevelt chronicled the events in a series of articles for

“Scribner’s Magazine,” which would eventually get turned into his book Through the Brazilian

Wilderness. There were times, however, when he could not even manage this, like when he had an attack of malaria causing him to become deliriously feverish, and for Kermit to fear for his father’s life. Eventually, however, the party did make it through the jungle, adding the river to the map and, in the process, giving it a new name—Rio Roosevelt (later Rio Theodoro).

Now, like I said at the beginning, if I had all the time in the world I could keep going on about places related to Roosevelt--I could talk about his time in Cambridge, where he attended

Harvard, I could talk about Albany, where he was an assemblyman, about Milwaukee, where he was shot, about the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona, about Mount Rushmore, not even mentioning his time in Washington D.C.! I hope, though, that the five places I picked—North Dakota, Cuba,

Panama, East Africa, and Brazil—give you an idea of the wide-ranging and strenuous life that

Theodore Roosevelt lived. Each of these places shaped, in some way, Theodore Roosevelt’s life and how we remember him today, and the primary sources I showed you—all the letters, pictures, movies, and more—help us to understand not only Theodore Roosevelt’s life, but the places he visited and the time he lived in. Thank you all very much for taking the time to be here today, and if there are any questions in the time we have left I’d love to do my best to answer!