Sites and Major Archive Collections
This list represents the major Roosevelt collections; however, there are many smaller collections that are also useful resources.
Library of Congress
THEODORE ROOSEVELT PAPERS, 1878–1919
Held in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, these papers constitute the largest collection of original Roosevelt documents in the world. The collection contains personal, family, and official correspondence, diaries, book drafts, articles, speeches, and scrapbooks, dating from 1759 to 1993, with the bulk of material from the period between 1878 and 1919. Roosevelt’s papers thoroughly document his career in public service, especially his presidential administration from 1901 to 1909.
This collection consists of 104 motion pictures and four sound recordings; the majority of the motion pictures (eighty-seven) are from the Theodore Roosevelt Association Collection in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) at the Library of Congress.
National Park Service
THEODORE ROOSEVELT BIRTHPLACE, NEW YORK CITY
The boyhood home of the first U.S. president born in New York City, located at 28 East 20th Street, the reconstructed house contains five-period rooms, two museum galleries, and a bookstore.
SAGAMORE HILL NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, OYSTER BAY, NEW YORK
Sagamore Hill was Roosevelt’s private home from 1885 until 1919. During his time in office, his “Summer White House” was the focus of international attention. The home and its contents have been preserved and can be viewed on a guided tour. Its eighty acres of grounds include walking trails that take visitors through pasture, woodland, and waterfront.
THE THEODORE ROOSEVELT INAUGURAL SITE, BUFFALO, NEW YORK
The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site preserves the Ansley Wilcox House, at 641 Delaware Avenue, in Buffalo, New York, where— after the assassination of William McKinley—Roosevelt took the oath of office as President of the United States on September 14, 1901.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT ISLAND, WASHINGTON, DC
Theodore Roosevelt Association, in memory of Roosevelt, gave the federal government an 88.5-acre island and national memorial in the Potomac River in Washington, DC.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT NATIONAL PARK, NORTH DAKOTA
The only national park named after a single person, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, is comprised of three geographically separated areas of the Badlands in western North Dakota. The park covers 70,446 acres of land in three sections: the North Unit, the South Unit, and the Elkhorn Ranch Unit. The Little Missouri River flows through all three units of the park, while the Maah Daah Hey Trail connects all three units.
DICKINSON STATE UNIVERSITY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT CENTER
The Theodore Roosevelt Center is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Roosevelt. The Center has undertaken the monumental task of creating a presidential digital library that serves as a repository for all Roosevelt-related documents, photographs, and ephemera, providing instant access via the Internet in a well-organized, comprehensible manner. The Center also hosts an annual Theodore Roosevelt Symposium as well as special Roosevelt-related events, promotes Roosevelt scholarship, and offers student internships.
HARVARD LIBRARY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT COLLECTION
The Theodore Roosevelt Collection, housed in Harvard’s Houghton and Widener libraries, is a major resource for the study of Roosevelt's life and times. The collection includes correspondence of Roosevelt and his family; original manuscripts that include many of Roosevelt’s diaries, speeches, articles, and books; the archives of the Progressive Party and many of Roosevelt’s biographers; and a vast collection of books and articles, photographs, political cartoons, and ephemera relating to both Roosevelt’s personal and professional life.
Additional Collections
Compiled and shared by the Theodore Roosevelt Center, this collection celebrates a diverse group of Roosevelt items from around the country. Researchers, private collectors, and other people passionate about Roosevelt submit digital items that match the Center’s specifications.
The items in this collection illuminate Roosevelt’s relationship to the Great Plains, as well as his connections to the Selmes, Greenway, and Ferguson families. Isabella Greenway was the first U.S. congresswoman in Arizona history, as well as the daughter of Patty Selmes. The Selmes family called North Dakota home. Materials in this collection include correspondence from Gutzon Borglum regarding the creation of Mount Rushmore, letters examining national politics, and items relating to the history of the Rough Riders. Most importantly, this collection shows the value Roosevelt and his family placed on developing and preserving relationships over a lifetime.
Many of the Rough Riders were from the territory of Arizona, and seven of them were affiliated with Tempe Normal School, now known as Arizona State University, which holds a substantial Rough Riders collection.
BUFFALO BILL CENTER OF THE WEST
Materials in this collection, a five-museum complex in Cody, Wyoming, include Roosevelt’s correspondence with the Winchester Company as he prepared the guns and ammunition for his 1909 African safari with his son Kermit. A Winchester advertisement with an endorsement from Roosevelt is also included. The collection documents firearm history and Roosevelt’s passion for hunting.
In 1901, Buffalo hosted the Pan-American Exposition, during which President William McKinley was shot, and Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated. The inaugural ceremony was held in the home of Ansley Wilcox, a friend of Roosevelt’s. The Museum’s collection includes the 1901 Ansley Wilcox scrapbook, which includes newspaper clippings from the Exposition, President McKinley’s assassination, and Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration in Wilcox’s home.
DR. DANNY O. CREW THEODORE ROOSEVELT SHEET MUSIC COLLECTION
This collection is part of the Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library. As a music historian and sheet music collector, Dr. Crew was attracted to collecting sheet music to combine his love of politics, history, and music. The collection includes sheet music, song sheets, and songbooks, as well as commercial recordings.
The Henry Ford Museum features an exhibition of presidential vehicles, including Roosevelt’s 1902 Brougham.
Fritz R. Gordner was introduced to presidential collecting as a child. That urge to gather things has grown into a Roosevelt collection that includes hundreds of postcards, campaign buttons, banners, and assorted items, including a Toby jug and a Roosevelt bank. This is part of the Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library.
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Roosevelt-related items in this collection include photos of Roosevelt speaking at his inauguration, Roosevelt in his frontiersman attire, and a signed photograph from Roosevelt to his close friend and confidant Henry Cabot Lodge. Letters from Roosevelt to Lodge are also included. Other correspondence highlights are Roosevelt's writing to members of the Saltonstall family and a letter from Roosevelt to Mary Bowditch Forbes commenting on pacifist women.
MIKE THOMPSON THEODORE ROOSEVELT POSTCARD COLLECTION
The Mike Thompson Theodore Roosevelt Postcard Collection was formed while Thompson worked on his book The Travels and Tribulations of Theodore Roosevelt’s Cabin. He found the postcards in private collections and antique shops, as well as on eBay. This is part of the Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library.
MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL
The majestic figures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, surrounded by the beauty of the Black Hills of South Dakota, tell the story of this country's birth, growth, development, and preservation.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY
The National Museum of American History has more than 1.7 million objects in its collection and 22,000 linear feet of archival documents, including an assortment of images and artifacts related to Theodore Roosevelt.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Theodore Roosevelt collected birds as a boy and as a member of the Smithsonian African Expedition; his specimens are part of this collection.
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY—MANUSCRIPTS AND ARCHIVES DIVISION
The NYPL holds the Theodore Roosevelt Papers, 1889–1918, which consist largely of letters written by Roosevelt to various parties. Some photographs and a partial manuscript draft of Winning of the West, Volume 1, are also present.
Located at the Newberry Library in Chicago, this collection includes letters from Roosevelt to cartoonist John McCutcheon, letters from Edith Roosevelt to author Alice French, and a scrapbook showing how Roosevelt’s memory was preserved immediately after his death and into the 1920s.
STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NORTH DAKOTA
The State Historical Society of North Dakota, based in Bismarck, is the official repository of the historic records of state and local governments in North Dakota. Materials in this collection include letters from William Sewall, who, with his nephew Wilmot Dow, managed Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch from 1884 to 1886; records describing the role of the Daughters of the American Revolution in preserving the Theodore Roosevelt cabin; and documents describing Roosevelt’s 1903 visit to Bismarck.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT ASSOCIATION
Three days after the death of Theodore Roosevelt in January 1919, the Roosevelt Permanent Memorial National Committee came into being to preserve Roosevelt’s ideals and memory. Renamed the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA) on May 31, 1920, the organization was formally incorporated as a nonprofit by an Act of Congress. Specifically, Congress gave the RMA the objectives of establishing a memorial in Washington, DC; creating a park at Oyster Bay, New York; and establishing and maintaining “an endowment fund to promote the development and application of the policies and ideals of Theodore Roosevelt for the benefit of the American people.”
THEODORE ROOSEVELT MEDORA FOUNDATION
The Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation is a public nonprofit organization formed in 1986 and operates lodging, entertainment, recreation, and services in Medora, North Dakota. Materials in this collection include letters from Roosevelt to his ranching partners, his original contract with those partners, and several copies of The Bad Lands Cow Boy, the newspaper published in Medora during the 1880s.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT ASSOCIATION COLLECTION AT LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY
LIU’s Theodore Roosevelt Association Collection is comprehensive, with more than three thousand books, pamphlets, documents, and archives concerning the life, times, and interests of Roosevelt, as well as his rich and prolific writings.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT INSTITUTE AT LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY
The Theodore Roosevelt Institute at LIU is a nexus for public seminars, research, and educational programs. The Institute provides resources to develop leaders and advance policy, showcases thousands of Roosevelt’s writings, and hosts events led by preeminent scholars.
GREGORY A. WYNN THEODORE ROOSEVELT COLLECTION
Part of the Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library. Private collector Gregory A. Wynn has made his significant holdings of sheet music available. Roosevelt’s hold on the American consciousness is demonstrated in the variety, color, and number of these marches, songs, and rags.