Theodore Roosevelt Center

We most associate Theodore Roosevelt with the slouch hat and perhaps the pith helmet from his scientific expeditions, but those were hardly the only hats he wore. Although he often wore a silk top hat (sometimes called a stovepipe and famously worn by Roosevelt’s hero, Abraham Lincoln) during official duties, it wasn’t his favorite.

As his friend Jacob Riis relayed in Theodore Roosevelt: The Citizen (1904), “He hates a stovepipe . . .” Roosevelt even didn’t appreciate Riis wearing one, giving the latter a “malicious gleam” when General Greene showed up in a straw hat: “Oh, I am so glad you didn’t come in a top-hat . . .”

He also wore a straw hat; a crush hat, or a collapsible opera hat, also called a gibus for its inventor; and of course a pith helmet during his scientific expeditions. Although he enjoyed wearing a straw hat, he wasn’t as sure about a pith helmet, writing in Through the Brazilian Wilderness, “Sun helmets [another name for pith helmets] are best in the open; slouch-hats are infinitely preferable in the woods.”

Roosevelt was most comfortable in his slouch hat, which he adopted as his signature look in the 1890s while he was a police commissioner, according to Riis. Whether he was at home or abroad, he was always trying to wear a slouch hat!

Like us, you might be wondering where Roosevelt got all these hats and who was his “mad hatter” to reference one of his favorite books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. That would be Edward M. Knox of Knox Hatters in Brooklyn, New York.

There are three letters in the digital library where Knox mentions three different hats that were sent for President Roosevelt: a black felt slouch hat, a silk hat, and a Panama hat (which Roosevelt received well before visiting Panama in 1906).

Now that we know who behatted Roosevelt and a bit more about some of his hats, we’ll hang up our proverbial hat. Let us know which hat of Roosevelt’s is your favorite in the comments below!

in 1900, Governor of New York Theodore Roosevelt delivered an address titled "Promise and Performance" at Rochester University.

Roosevelt implored the audience to take an active, strong role in politics so as to improve the government, instead of resigning themselves to wishing it was better.

"Do not think that in this republic, under this government, which is a government of and by and for the people, that the people can hold themselves guiltless if the government goes wrong. It is an easy thing to try to make a scapegoat of others; it is an easy thing to say the people are sound, the fault lies only with the politicians; but in the long run the government in a country like ours must respond to the will of the people. If you wish your government to be good, it will be good. You have it in your power to make it good, but you cannot make it good without trying. I do not mean that you should wish it at home in your own parlor. I do not mean that you should get together in little bodies once a year and wish that other people were as good as you. I mean that you should take the same trouble in regard to politics that you take in your own private affairs."

Read the full published version of the address here: https://ow.ly/2cp550Z5mHL

in 1902, President Roosevelt delivered remarks at the centennial celebration of the establishment of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.

Roosevelt praised the cadets at West Point as the best of the best, and recalled his own experience fighting alongside a West Pointer under his command in Cuba. He especially emphasized the need for soldiers to understand their roles as individuals in order to perform effectively:

"As has been well said, the developments of warfare during the last few years have shown that in the future the unit will not be the regiment nor the company nor troop; the unit will be the individual man. The army is to a very great extent going to do well or ill according to the average of that individual man. If he does not know how to shoot, how to shift for himself, how both to obey orders and to accept responsibility when the emergency comes where he will not have any orders to obey, if he is not able to do all of that, and if in addition he has not got the fighting edge, you had better have him out of the army; he will be a damage in it.

In a battle hereafter each man is going to be to a considerable extent alone. The formation will be so open that the youngest officer will have to take much of the responsibility that in former wars fell on his seniors; and many of the enlisted men will have to do most of their work without supervision from any officer whatsoever. The man will have to act largely alone, and if he shows a tendency to huddle up to somebody else his usefulness will be pretty near at an end. He must draw on his own courage and resourcefulness to meet the emergencies as they come up. It will be more difficult in the future than ever before to know your profession, and more essential also; and you officers, and you who are about to become officers, if you are going to do well, have got to learn how to perform the duty which, while becoming more essential, has become harder to perform."

Read the full address at the American Presidency Project: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-the-centennial-celebration-the-establishment-the-united-states-military-academy

In support of the upcoming production of the musical "Teddy and Alice" at Dickinson State University, TR Center historian Dr. William Hansard gave a series of three brief talks exploring the lives of the main characters of the show. They were designed to give the cast, crew and others involved with the production a brief overview of the real historical figures they will be bringing to life.

These talks were free and open to the public, and you can now see them all on our YouTube channel! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-w83bgbncuHXpZ2Eu5Q_pIxic_OjELO8&si=HjYQ3X0xsWRSDaRD

For more information about the musical - in which Dr. Hansard is playing Theodore Roosevelt himself - and to get your FREE tickets, visit our website: https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/teddy-and-alice/

Teddy and Alice Historical Talks Join Dr. William Hansard as he looks at the historical lives and characters of Theodore Roosevelt, his family, and his contemporaries in the leadup to Dickin...

One of the phrases we most associate with Theodore Roosevelt wasn’t one that he created, but rather was a proverb he popularized: “Speak softly, and carry a big stick.” But this wasn’t the only proverb Roosevelt used in his speeches.

Today’s is another proverb that Roosevelt used occasionally in speeches, including in at least four different speeches in three different states in the span of one week during his tour of the West in 1903.

Just as Roosevelt adapted the African proverb to his political beliefs, so too did he take a frontier proverb and apply it in a different context: “Never draw unless you mean to shoot.”

As Roosevelt explained in each of the four speeches in Washington State, Utah, and Wyoming, this proverb was one he learned during his time ranching in the North Dakota Badlands—what he called “cow country.”

Since we’re based in North Dakota, we’re especially dee-lighted by this week’s Wednesday Wisdom because it demonstrates how pivotal Roosevelt’s time in the North Dakota Badlands was to him.

In these four speeches, Roosevelt could have used his tried-and-true aphorism of “Speak softly, and carry a big stick,” when speaking about international diplomacy, the Monroe Doctrine, and the ability of the United States to back up its claims with the Navy, but instead he turned to wisdom from the Badlands, thus demonstrating that even as president, the Badlands were never far from his mind!

If you’re interested in reading the context of the frontier proverb in all four speeches, check them out here!

Tacoma, Washington: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-tacoma-washington
Tekoa, Washington: https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o289920/
Ogden, Utah: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-ogden-utah
Cheyenne, Wyoming: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-cheyenne-wyoming-0

The TR Center will be closing early today at 2PM MT due to inclement weather in the area. We hope to see you another day!

in 1884, TR established the Elkhorn Ranch in the Badlands of Dakota Territory.

Seeking to soothe his soul after the deaths of his wife and mother, Roosevelt retreated to this remote ranch. Although the percentage of his life spent ranching in Dakota was small - about 359 days spread out from 1883-1887 - it had an outsized influence on the trajectory of his life. Many are familiar with his statements that he would not have become president if not for his time there, and that indeed, the romance of his life began there.

Still, even he recognized it was not all adventure and play, and because that aspect is talked about less often, we share his thoughts on that with you here: "A great many young fellows have an idea that the life of a ranchman, from its very hardships and risks, must have a certain romantic attraction to it," he wrote in Harper's Weekly in 1886. "But the romance evaporates after a couple of months spent in a muddy dugout with no amusements whatsoever, and on a steady diet of rancid bacon, sodden biscuits and alkali water."

Today the ranch buildings no longer exist, but the place where they once stood is preserved as one of three units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

in 1906, President Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law.

The bill, deemed necessary after two decades of looting, desecration, and destruction of Native American sites in the Southwest, was the result of years of work by a bipartisan group of senators. It broadly gives the President the power to protect "historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest" by proclamation. Roosevelt created 18 monuments over the course of his presidency, and today, there are 138.

Read more about the Antiquities Act in our online encyclopedia: https://ow.ly/R04u50Z5m3I

Explore documents related to national monuments in our digital library: https://ow.ly/vx2s50Z5m3C

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 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."