Scope and Content Note
The papers of Kermit Roosevelt (1889-1943) and Belle Wyatt Willard Roosevelt (1892-1968) span the years 1725-1975, with the bulk of material dating from 1900 to 1964. The collection includes diaries, family correspondence, general correspondence, subject files, business records, and miscellaneous items documenting many aspects of their personal, family, social, and business activities. The collection is arranged in fifteen series. The papers of Kermit and Belle Roosevelt are each organized in six series: Diaries, Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Subject File, Business Records, and Miscellany. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth series consist of two Additions and Oversize.
Kermit Roosevelt Papers
The Kermit Roosevelt Papers, which reflect his varied career as soldier, author, explorer, and businessman, comprise the bulk of the collection. They include a Diaries series spanning the years 1902-1929. Volumes covering the years he attended Groton School, 1904-1908, and when he accompanied his father, President Theodore Roosevelt, on a hunting expedition to Africa in 1909 are especially detailed. Entries for later years are relatively brief and concern social engagements and business matters. They usually expand only when the author writes about travel and hunting expeditions to foreign lands.
Within the Family Correspondence series are a few letters sent to Kermit by his father as well as typescripts of the president's letters to him for the war years 1917-1918. Correspondence with his mother, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, is considerably more voluminous and reveals the closeness between mother and son. Letters from his brother, Theodore Roosevelt, contain references to political and economic affairs in Puerto Rico and the Philippine Islands, where he served as governor from 1929 to 1932 and governor-general from 1932 to 1933.
The General Correspondence series includes letters exchanged with Vincent Astor, Harold J. Coolidge, Merian C. Cooper, C. Suydam Cutting, Stanley Field, and Edmund Heller. Of particular interest is Roosevelt's correspondence with Lawrence Timpson and Edwin Arlington Robinson. Timpson, a business lawyer living in London, wrote frequently to Roosevelt concerning British politics and business activities, particularly with reference to oil, railroad, and mine concessions in the Middle East and the British colonies. Kermit's correspondence with the poet Edwin Arlington Robinson was initiated after reading Robinson's Town Down the River while a student at Groton. Kermit brought the poet's work to the attention of his father who in turn brought Robinson to the attention of the American people. Featured among the papers in the Subject File are items relating to an expedition to India and Chinese Turkestan in 1925.
The complex nature of a worldwide shipping organization is revealed in the Business Records series among items relating to the Kerr Steamship Company, United States Lines, and Roosevelt Steamship Company. The series also offers records pertaining to insurance, various real estate properties, and investments. Within the Miscellany series are articles by Kermit Roosevelt, biographical information, and printed matter.
Belle Roosevelt Papers
The Diaries series in the papers of Belle Roosevelt features diaries kept by her during the war years of 1918 and 1940-1945. The World War II diaries record conversations with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, report important events, and describe some of the famous guests met during frequent visits to the White House, especially after Kermit Roosevelt's death in 1943.
The Family Correspondence series houses a significant quantity of letters from her husband, Kermit Roosevelt, during both world wars. Correspondence from her sister, Elizabeth Willard Herbert, includes letters dated 1940-1945 describing wartime conditions in England. A General Correspondence series comprises letters from acquaintances in a wide range of professions. Outstanding among them is a group of letters exchanged with the American ambassador to Great Britain, John Gilbert Winant, over the years 1941-1946. A Subject File documents Belle Roosevelt's activities with numerous organizations, such as the World War II Young America Wants To Help and the Kermit Roosevelt Memorial Fund which she established to sponsor lectures by outstanding British and American military officers.
Addition
Addition I, consisting of family correspondence, diary transcripts, memorials, speeches, writings, and business records, augments material found in the other series. Included is a sizable addition to the correspondence between Kermit Roosevelt and his mother, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt. The letters provide insight into many facets of Kermit Roosevelt's adult life, particularly his experiences as a soldier and explorer. Also featured is material pertaining to Roosevelt's 1925 expedition to Central Asia.
The papers of Belle Roosevelt form the bulk of Addition I and principally concern her activities following her husband's death in 1943, including her political campaigning for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and her efforts to memorialize her husband through the endowment of a lecture fund and erection of a cemetery gate at Fort Richardson, Alaska. Addition I also contains material concerning the Maritime Commission's wartime lease of Mohannes, the Roosevelt home in Oyster Bay, New York. The estate was converted into a convalescent home for injured merchant seamen between 1942 and 1946.
Other items of note include the manuscript of a poem written by Edith Wharton on the death of Theodore Roosevelt. Wharton, a cousin of Edith Roosevelt, wrote the poem, "With the Tide," immediately following Roosevelt's death in January 1919. The papers also contain a series of intelligence reports on Arabs in North Africa written by Archibald Roosevelt Jr. while stationed in Morocco and Tunisia in 1943.
Addition II in the papers of Belle Roosevelt consists chiefly of family and general correspondence. Frequent correspondents include her sister, Elizabeth Herbert, husband Kermit, and her mother, Belle Willard, particularly from 1918 to 1929. Her papers also include two diaries dating from 1925, and material related to her work with various charities and social organizations, including organizing benefit events for the Citizens Family Welfare Committee, the Lenox Hill Neighborhood Association, and the Maternity Center Association. Her social work is also documented in two scrapbooks.
The papers of Kermit Roosevelt in Addition II include ten additional diaries dating from 1904 to 1936. There is also correspondence, clippings, and other material concerning several hunting expeditions in Africa and Asia, including a trip to Africa in 1909 with his father, President Theodore Roosevelt, and an expedition throughout Central Asia in 1925 with his older brother, Theodore. Letters from his wife, Belle Roosevelt, were primarily received during his posting at Fort Richardson, Alaska from 1942 to 1943, shortly before his death.