Scope and Content Note for Additions to the Collection
The additions to the Theodore Roosevelt Papers span the years 1760-1993 and are organized as Series 16 of the collection. Subseries are arranged according to the order in which the additions were processed. None of the material in the additions is included in the Library's microfilm edition of the Roosevelt Papers.
Material in Addition I spans the years 1760-1930, with the bulk concentrated in the period 1892-1930. It consists of family papers, general correspondence, speeches and writings, and subject files. The largest segment is the Roosevelt family file containing letters and memorabilia of Roosevelt's sons Archibald and Quentin and other members of the Roosevelt family. Letters from Roosevelt to Archibald from 1906 to 1916 dominate this part of the addition. Correspondence of Margaret Barnhill Roosevelt, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, and Kate Shippen Roosevelt is also included in the family papers.
General correspondence in Addition I includes both originals and reproductions with the greater part consisting of photographic reproductions of Roosevelt's letters to William W. Sewell. The speeches and writings file contains first, final, and annotated drafts. Among the topics covered are democratic ideals discussed in a speech given before South American audiences, judicial recall, and Roosevelt's prewar tour of the Middle East and Europe.
The subject file in Addition I includes a complete set of minutes of a meeting in Chicago, 12 February 1912, at which Roosevelt was promoted as a Republican Party presidential candidate. Complementing the minutes is an annotated text of a speech delivered at Madison Square Garden in New York City later that year. An eyewitness report by O. K. Davis described an assassination attempt on Roosevelt's life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1912.
Addition II includes material arranged alphabetically by subject spanning the years 1891-1993, with the bulk of the material dated 1891-1917. The Civil Service Commission file includes undated typewritten drafts of speeches, writings, and statements with Roosevelt's handwritten emendations; typewritten copies of outgoing letters, memoranda, and reports, 1891-1894; and material about Roosevelt compiled by the Information Division of the commission, 1910-1949. General correspondence includes an original letter dated 1895 from Roosevelt as New York City police commissioner and a photographic reproduction of a letter dated 1910 from Roosevelt as editor of The Outlook magazine. The Tom A. Raikes file includes a letter to Raikes from Roosevelt, 1912, and Raikes's collected newspaper accounts in 1910 of Roosevelt's speeches in London concerning British rule in Africa. The John Willis file includes photographic reproductions of letters from Roosevelt, 1909-1917, and material dated 1988-1993 describing Willis's role as Roosevelt's friend and hunting guide in Montana.
Addition III contains correspondence and printed matter from 1901 to 1918. The correspondence includes two letters from Roosevelt to J. W. Vickers, a soldier who served under Roosevelt during the Spanish American War, and a letter from Roosevelt to his son Theodore concerning Vickers. A letter to Bellamy Storer, 1901, reveals Roosevelt's concern with Roman Catholic influence in the recently acquired territories of the Philippine Islands and his efforts to “Americanize” foreign elements within the Catholic church in America. The addition also includes a copy of The Facts about the Candidate by Byron Andrews, a miniature book published for the presidential election of 1904.
Addition IV includes correspondence from 1898 to 1932. Roosevelt composed a letter at the headquarters for the 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, near Santiago de Cuba, to Colonel William Conant Church in 1898. In the letter, Roosevelt refuted claims that the Rough Riders in their first fight engaged in friendly fire and that their love of notoriety pushed them into a position where they had to be rescued. He claimed the volunteers were on par with regulars in terms of fighting capacity and further explained that the volunteers led three assaults with regulars alongside them at the extreme front of the battle of San Juan Heights. Another typed letter from 1911 is Roosevelt’s brief reply to Richard Pretlow Ernst. A letter from 1932 documents that Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt campaigned for Republican candidates William J. Donovan for governor and Frederick Trubee Davison for lieutenant governor of New York.