Theodore Roosevelt Association

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The Theodore Roosevelt Association, (TRA) is an historical and cultural organization based in Oyster Bay, New York, open to the general public. The organization's purpose is to honor the life and works of Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) and to educate the public on the 26th US President.

To fully honor TR and his legacy, the TRA seeks to build a new "Center" for people of all ages to learn more about Roosevelt, from his early childhood to his last days. Visitors will find themselves in a L.E.E.D. building, immersed in the stories of Theodore Roosevelt. From the honeymoon climb of the Matterhorn, his leadership in Cuba and his expeditions to Kenya and the River of Doubt in the Amazon, TR always seems to be in motion. Scholars and researchers may also find a home in the new center. The leading site for the "Center" is the Oyster Bay area.^[1]

The organization was founded in 1919 by friends and supporters of the late US 26th president originally as the Permanent Memorial National Committee. Soon renamed the Roosevelt Memorial Association, (RMA), it was chartered by an Act of Congress in 1920. In parallel with the RMA was an organization for women, The Women's Theodore Roosevelt Association that had been founded in 1919 by an act of the New York State Assembly. Both organizations merged in 1953 under the current name. In 2007, membership fees were as low as $20 for students and $35 for regular members.

Several levels of membership are available. ^[2]

[edit] History

The Association was formally chartered by Congress in 1920 under its original name, the Roosevelt Memorial Association, "to perpetuate the memory of Theodore Roosevelt for the benefit of the people of the United States of America and the world...." A parallel non-affliliated Women's Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association was founded at the same time. Until their merger in 1953, the two organizations undertook largely independent projects dedicated to preserving Roosevelt's home, Sagamore Hill, rebuilding his birthplace in Manhattan, in New York City collecting, organizing and preserving his writings, correspondence, photos and film related to his life and educating the public on Roosevelt's life and legacy.

[edit] Nearly 90 Years of Preserving Theodore Roosevelt's Legacy

Sitting room in the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site on East 20th Street in NYC. The building was rebuilt by the Women's Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association in the 1920s and donated to the National Park Service by the Theodore Roosevelt Association in 1963.

The two ancestor organizations that eventually combined to form the modern Association established four public sites: the reconstructed Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, New York City, which it dedicated in 1923 and donated to the National Park Service in 1963; Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park, Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York, which it dedicated in 1928 and gave to the people of Oyster Bay; Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac in Washington, D.C., given to the federal government in 1932; and Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt's Oyster Bay home, which opened to the public in 1953 and, together with nearby Old Orchard, home to Theodore Roosevelt Jr., was donated to the National Park Service in also in 1963. Along with the 1963 gifts of the Birthplace and Sagamore Hill properties, the TRA also donated an endowment to help support both parks sites. The TRA currently owns Theodore Roosevelt's simple cabin, "Pine Knot", near Charlottesville, VA, which is managed by The Edith and Theodore Roosevelt Pine Knot Foundation.

[edit] Theodore Roosevelt Collection

One of the two TRA ancestor organizations, the Roosevelt Memorial Association (RMA), collected manuscripts, diaries, correspondence and other items relating to Roosevelt's personal and professional life. In 1923, the RMA opened a research library in New York City, and continued to build its archive. During 1943, the organization presented that entire collection of materials to Harvard University, Roosevelt's alma mater. Today the Theodore Roosevelt Collection is housed in Harvard's Houghton and Widener Libraries. ^[3] The collection continues to be a major resource for the study of the life and times of the 26th president of the United States. (Note: The only larger Theodore Roosevelt Collection is that at the Library of Congress (LOC), which includes Roosevelt's Presidential Papers, donated personally by Roosevelt to the LOC.) ^[4]

[edit] Theodore Roosevelt Film Collection

The compilation of the film collection was originally embarked upon by the RMA in January 1919. Later, during 1924, the RMA formally established the Roosevelt Motion Picture Library housed in the president's reconstructed NYC birthplace. During 1962, the TRA donated the Roosevelt Motion Picture Library to the Library of Congress. ^[5]

[edit] 1953 name change and merger with the Women's Association

TR's home Sagamore Hill, a National Historic Site donated to the National Park Service by the Theodore Roosevelt Association in 1963. Nearby is Old Orchard, the former home of Theodore Roosevelt Jr., which houses a comprehensive multimedia museum concerning the life and times of Theodore Roosevelt.

In 1953, the RMA changed its title to the current name, the Theodore Roosevelt Association, and the modern organization was born. On January 6, 1955, the Women's Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association officially merged with the TRA.^{[6] [7]}

[edit] Leadership of the TRA

Led in the years 1919-1957 by Secretary and Director Hermann Hagedorn (1882-1964), the Association engaged in a wide spectrum of programs and activities to preserve Roosevelt's memory. Dr. John Allen Gable served as executive director from 1974 until his sudden death in early 2005. ^[8] After interim appointments, the TRA's leadership decided to expand and modernize the organization and hired James Bruns as Director to implement an organizational growth strategy. Bruns, was the former President and CEO of the Atlanta History Center (AHC) and while there had been quite successful tenure developing the museum's physical and financial resources as well as raising almost 30 million dollars. Before the AHC position, Bruns had for a number of years at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, where he oversaw the building of the National Postal Museum and also had raised hundreds of millions of dollars for various projects. ^[9] Bruns is leading an effort to increase membership, grow the organization and is raising funds for a new Presidential Library and Research Center.

[edit] Activities in modern times

In recent years, the organization's endeavors included creation and maintenance of About Theodore Roosevelt, the TRA web site at www.theodoreroosevelt.org which receives over 10,000,000 hits per year and provides information on the many facets of TR. The organization also conducts the Theodore Roosevelt^R Police Awards (given in New York, Dallas, Boston, Nashville and other locations to police officers who have overcome handicaps), and the Theodore Roosevelt Teddy Bear program, which each year gives Teddy Bears to hospitalized children in New York City and Nashville during the December Holiday season. The TRA also publishes a quarterly journal, conducts occasional historical and educational conferences, and sponsors public speaking contests for high school students in New York. ^[10]

[edit] Annual Dinner/Meetings

Annual meetings of the Theodore Roosevelt Association - held near TR's October 27th birthday - occur generally in places that are somehow associated with TR - Boston/Cambridge where he attended college and met his first wife, New York/Oyster Bay where he lived most of his life, Norfolk around the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Washington DC where he worked as Asst. Sec. of Navy, Vice President and President, Atlanta GA where his mother grew up, and even the Netherlands where the Roosevelts originated. The annual dinner frequently includes the awarding of the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal (DSM). Annual meetings often include lectures on TR, visits to Roosevelt-related sites, and silent auctions and bartering/selling of TR collectibles by collector members of the association.

[edit] 2006-2007 activities

In 2006 a new chapter was started in Washington State. WATRA, as it is known, has grown steadily since that time. WATRA will be hosting the Centennial Celebration of the Arrival of TR's Great White Fleet in Seattle for May 23, 2008. ^[11] Early in 2007, the TRA began to push recruiting, appointing a Michelle Bryant, who was heavily involved in activities of the US Navy's USS Theodore Roosevelt, as the wife of one of its former commanding officer, of Seattle, WA as the chair of the membership committee. TRA members from Bismark, ND, Minnesota and Florida also indicated interest in starting state chapters.

[edit] Current Theodore Roosevelt Museums and Sites

Fountain and statue at the National Theodore Roosevelt Memorial on Theodore Roosevelt Island. The island was donated to the National Park Service by the TRA in 1931. The National Theodore Roosevelt Memorial on the island was dedicated in 1967.

The Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, established 1978, encompasses more than 70,000 acres (280 km²)

As noted above, Theodore Roosevelt's home, Sagamore Hill, and the adjacent Old Orchard (home of Theodore Roosevelt Jr.) were both given to the National Park Service by the TRA in the early 1960s, along with the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace in New York City. All three museums remain open to visitors. Old Orchard was recently gutted on its ground floor and redone into a state-of-the-art museum featuring even more artifacts, as well as multimedia presentations documenting the life and career of TR. Not only does the National Park Service administer Sagamore Hill and Old Orchard in Oyster Bay, as well as the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace in NYC, but also the aforementioned Theodore Roosevelt Island, an 80 acre tract in the Potomac at Washington, DC, which incorporates an imposing national memorial to Theodore Roosevelt dedicated in 1967. There is also the enormous (more than 70,000 acres (280 km²)) Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota which has a museum dedicated to TR's experiences as a rancher in the Badlands in 1884-1887. Theodore Roosevelt's face is enshrined on Mount Rushmore beside those of Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington.nn

[edit] Proposed Presidential Center/Museum

Press announcements in March 2007 concerning the appointment of James Bruns as president of the TRA noted a plan to build a "a world-class museum ...dedicated to the 26th president." ^[12]

This would be a "Center" for people of all ages to learn more about Roosevelt, from his early childhood to his last days. Proponents intend that visitors would find themselves face to face with the stories of Roosevelt in ways that have not been explored or presented before. The expectation is that once people learn about TR they will be further inspired to visit other NY State sites such as Sagamore Hill, his grave site, Birthplace and Inaugural Site as well as other sites, such as TR National Park and the Elkhorn Ranch in North Dakota.

Plans also call for an "education and research arm" which may promote some of the current programs and develop others, and, perhaps, a public policy arm, not to take sides on an issue, but to encourage debate on topics of particular import to TR. The intention remains to build a "L.E.E.D." or "green" building that would take advantage of technologies in lighting, HVAC and waste management.

In an interview with the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot, Bruns described the project as a challenge to build "a permanent home for [the TRA] and create a fitting place of national reflection in honoring the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt." An article published July 23, 2007 in Newsday indicated that the TRA intends to build its project in either Oyster Bay, Cambridge (Massachusetts), or Washington, D.C., with Oyster Bay being the most likely site. ^[13]

Defenders of the project point out, among other things, to the millions of dollars of donor contributions that will fund modern digital information retrieval technology that will allow the new museum working with other institutions such as Dickinson State University which has already announced a project to digitize all of Roosevelt's papers. ^[14] Those digital facsimiles and word-for-word text technologies will make Roosevelt's 8 million plus words available to researchers and scholars worldwide as were the Thomas Jefferson papers when the University of Virginia digitized its collection of his papers. Thus, the actual physical location of Roosevelt's papers and artifacts will be irrelevant to researchers and scholars who would never have had access to them. In fact, these same technologies will preserve the documents and physical artifacts from on-going deterioration as the result of human contact and interface. These same defenders also point out that neither Harvard, the National Park Service nor the Library of Congress have any such plans in place to digitize Roosevelt's papers and that the new library will provide precisely the resources needed for this important work of dissemination. Critics point out that while digitization is a worthy ambition, it obviates the need for a brick and mortar research library.

In the hamlet of Oyster Bay (where, according to press reports, the museum will most likely be sited) many locals are wary of the project. While many officials of the wider Town of Oyster Bay seem enthusiastic about the project, citizens and officials in the Hamlet of Oyster Bay, which will be most greatly impacted by the museum, have reservations regarding issues related to traffic, parking, waterfront management, and pollution of the bay. Interviewed in late September 2007, Oyster Bay Cove Mayor Rosemary Bourne said, "I don't know why they need it. I'm not in favor of it. I don't understand why it's needed and - who is going to support it? Sagamore Hill is not open every day for lack of financing so I don't understand about the deal. ... It's a question of priorities. Rather than a TR Museum I'd rather have a WaterFront Center building. There are a finite number of people who can write out a check to support each one. We need a WaterFront Center building." Another resident, Marie Knight, past president of the Oyster Bay Civic Center, criticized the proposed placement of the building saying, "It's a flood area. Cars have been flooded there, I know from local people. Why split up a museum and take away a parking lot that is so needed. That and add more traffic. Why put it there when they have Sagamore Hill?"

But others, such as Ralph Fumante, President of the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary Board, support the project saying, "A TR Museum might be the shot in the arm Oyster Bay needs." ^[15] (Note that the Sanctuary is not in the Hamlet of Oyster Bay where the museum will be built, but rather in Cove Neck several miles to the east.)

Local debate is ongoing. ^[16] A meeting hosted for town residents by the Theodore Roosevelt Association on January 10th, 2008 grew quite heated. According to NEWSDAY: "There were sharp exchanges, and some speakers refused to yield the microphone until repeatedly admonished by the Rev. Peter Casparian. They argued the center would bring too much traffic and overwhelm the 3.5-acre field. They said the lot should be left vacant for parking for ballgames and boat trailers and for special events." ^[17] Meanwhile, a new citizens group - the Coalition to Save Firemen's Field - has been formed to defend the proposed site of the new museum from development. ^[18] Many residents cite grave concerns over increased traffic to the Museum over two-lane roads for a five mile perimeter around the proposed site: roads that are already frequently choked with traffic jams.

[edit] Members of the TRA Board

The current chair, Barbara Brandt serves as the TRA's 1st woman president. She is joined on the board and in the association by members from a wide variety of walks of life, several members of the Roosevelt family including TR's great-grandsons Tweed Roosevelt and Mark Ames, granddaughter Susan Roosevelt Weld and great-great-grandson Simon Roosevelt, and several cousins of TR. Other members include but are not limited to those in finance, the judicial/legal arenas and teaching. The TRA board is also honored to include several active duty and retired US mililtary officers.

[edit] Membership

The TRA’s membership numbered 1800 as of 2006. (For backup on 2006 membership figure see: Theodore Roosevelt Association Financial Statements as of June 30, 2006, Together with Auditor's Report prepared by Callaghan Nawrocki LLP. Copies available from the office of the Theodore Roosevelt Association pursuant to New York State Law.)

Interests of the membership are as varied as were Theodore Roosevelt's own interests. Members include teachers at all levels, doctors, lawyers, students, military members, volunteers, members of finance, and biographers; naturalists and conservationists, hunters and outdoor enthusiasts, professional historians, supporters of the Navy, Rough Rider fans, political buffs and collectors, and Theodore Roosevelt impersonators. Some members join simply because they enjoy "Teddy" bears.

[edit] Rights and Privileges of Members

Membership in the Association includes a subscription to the quarterly TRA Journal, and invitations to Association functions. Members also receive free admission to Sagamore Hill (Oyster Bay, NY) and the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace in Manhattan, upon presentation of their membership cards.

[edit] Office Location and Contact Information

The Association's Office is located at

Theodore Roosevelt Association 20 Audrey Avenue Oyster Bay, NY 11771-1532

The TRA can be reached by writing to that address or to their post office box:

Theodore Roosevelt Association P.O. Box 719 Oyster Bay, NY 11771-0719

Telephone (516)921-6319 FAX (516) 921-6481

General e-mail: mailto:info@theodoreroosevelt.org

President Jim Bruns: mailto:jameshbruns@aol.com James Bruns Direct Line: 703-969-9367

[edit] Notes

[edit] See also

• Theodore Roosevelt
• Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia

[edit] External links

• http://www.theodoreroosevelt.org Theodore Roosevelt Association Official Site
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/troosevelt_film/ Library of Congress - Theodore Roosevelt on Film
• http://www.publichistory.org/reviews/View_Review.asp?DBID=100 Review of the Theodore Roosevelt Association Web Site by Rich Hephner of the Public History Resource Center