Since 1943, Widener Library has housed the world's largest collection of biographical material in one place on one man. Its Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Library, now on Display" in Widner, contains more than 12,000 books, besides microfilm records of 125,000 letters written by Roosevelt, and over 5,000 photographs and cartoons. The collection, begun 34 years ago by the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Association, now covers much of Widener's fourth floor, spilling over onto the sixth floor.
Widener's collection contains almost every mention of Roosevelt made during his life. It covers in detail a broad background of American history during Roosevelt's 40 years of public service from 1880 to 1920, concentrating especially upon his two biggest projects, the Spanish-American War and the Panama Canal.
Some of the material is valuable, some markedly trivial. Thomas Little, the collection's custodian, has great respect for its value to thesis researchers into history topics, but will wryly admit that "it may big too big for its own good." The library was meant primarily to be a personal moment to Roosevelt; there has been, however, a certain amount of friction between its useful and its sentimental sides." Little explained in a recent report on the collection, "As a separate library closely attended in its own quarters by a librarian, it gave excellent service. Now, as an element of the college library, it is known for its idiosyncrasies, which somewhat impair its efficiency." Despite its dual nature, the collection has served for 34 years as a convenient concentration of all pertinent data about an exciting, almost revolutionary, period in American history.
Two Special Groupings
Two special groupings of Roosevelt mementoes, a complete record of all outgoing letters during public life, and over 1000 scrapbooks kept by himself and aides have proved highly valuable to the M. I. T. History Department, which has compiled eight volumes of Roosevelt letters. Volumes seven and eight were released February 26.
The Roosevelt Collections came to Widener through the efforts of Hermann Hagedorn '07, a personal friend of Roosevelt and director and secretary of the Memorial Association since its formation. From 1922 until 1943, the collection had been installed in a building next door to Roosevelt House, 28 East 20th Street, in New York City. With the coming of World War Two, wartime inflation and the death of many members led the association to donate the collection to the University. But it came to Widener only after strong competition from William J. Crawford of Cleveland, who at the time owned the largest private Roosevelt collection, and bids from the New York Public Library, and Allen Nevins, Columbia's famed historian. Hagedorn and other interested alumni made up a majority on the association's executive board, however, and the collection came to Cambridge.
Of all his adventures, however, perhaps the most revealing was a brush with the Pope in 1910. On a visit to Europe after his audience with the Pope, then Plus X. At the time the Pope was troubled with the presences in Rome of some American Methodists who were trying to convert Rome from Catholicsim to Methodists. The Pope asked Roosevelt not to recognize the Methodists; the Methodists asked him not to see the Pope. Roosevelt compromised by ignoring both, thus "asserting his independence from either Church," as he related to President William Howard Taft on his return.
The collection in the result of work by many people rather than a few, for within a few weeks of its founding on January 9, 1919, there days after Roosevelt's death, the association had attracted many thousand of members. Its aims, as stated in the charter were: "To erect a D. C., to build a momental memorial park at Oyster Bay, Land Island (Roosevelt's home), and to propagate the policies and ideals of Theodore Roosevelt." The first task remains undone, but the other two have been successfully completed, as a thriving park on Long Island and the immense library now in Widener attest.
Men's Group at Start
At its inception, the association had been strictly a men's organization, but many women also admired Roosevelt. Their interest resulted in the formation of a Women's Roosevelt Memorial Association dedicated to restoring the old Roosevelt home in New York. Despite setbacks--such as the presence of a cleaning emporium on the site of the old home and a continual shortage of money--the women, with $150,000 in aid from the men completed the shrine in 1922. The house itself is a replica of the old one, constructed, with the advice of Roosevelt's younger sister Corinne, complete down to wallpaper, draperies, and furniture as it had been. A neighboring building housed the library from 1922 until its removal to Widener in 1943.
Now Fights Potomac Bridge
Presently, the chief occupation of both groups is the, fight against a bridge which the District of Columbia wants to construct across Potomac. The bridge would be built partially upon Theodore Roosevelt Island, a muddy islet in the Potomas named in Roosevelt's honor by Congress, and the associations are against its disfiguration. The associations also have continued to support the collection at Widener with a yearly subsidy and jointly make an annual award of the Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal.
Someone once said that the life of Theodore Roosevelt was the ultimate dream of every typical American boy: he was a deputy sheriff in the old West, fought in a war, killed lions, and became President. His exploits were amazing, and the collection covers all of them in detail.
Less Publicized Feats
The charge up Kettle Hill (later renamed San Juan Hill as more romantic) and his African lion-hunting trip are familiar to every history book reader, but some minor adventures were every bit as dramatic. As a "gentleman rancher" in the Bad Lands of Dakotas, Roosevelt was also a deputy sheriff who won considerable repute catching three rustlers by himself. His African trip has been well recorded, but a remarkable trip up the Amazon at the age of 58, on which he caught an almost fatal does of jungle fever, went without much notice. Critics said he had an adolescent, romantic attitude toward dueling. This much is true: on several occasions he did come close too shooting it out, the most famous time with the Marquis de Mores, an ambitious Frenchman who had built up a rival ranch in the Dakotas. A severe blizzard sent Roosevelt back East bankrupt, ending the feud.
Of all Roosevelt's admirers, perhaps the person most closely attached to the collection was Miss Nora E. Chordingly, its custodian from 1927 until her death three years ago. Miss Cordingly revered Roosevelt's memory and was eager to help anyone interested in him. She was also quick to defend him. Once John Mason Brown, drama critic for the New York Evening Post, wrote an article which seemed to Miss Cordingly to imply she took as an insult to Roosevelt, wore a wig. Stung by what she took as an insult to Roosevelt, she wrote Brown, demanding that he name his authority. Brown diplomatically suggested that her interpretation had been mistaken, explaining that he had been referring to a wig once worn by Ed Wynn in impersonating Roosevelt. In closing, he chided her gently for her mistake.
College Relations Stormy
If his public life was far from calm, his undergraduate career was at least as filled with contention. In his relations with Harvard, he seemed incapable of remaining in the background. From the time he first came to college in 1876, he assumed an immediate and intense dislike for President Eliot, and he vigorously attacked Eliot's revolutionary innovation, the elective system. Roosevelt really did not try to attract attention, but his red whiskers and eccentric manners marked him for Cambridge notoriety.
In the classroom he was an enthusiastic, if sometimes overbearing, student. He sinned in the eyes of his classmates by taking to great an interest in his instructor's words, and often compounded the in by taking issue with them, which "seemed barbaric to young men who considered college mere exposure to thought, and who had no serious apprehension of contaminations," as a biographer explained.
In his major, this habit was particularly pronounced. Once, when Roosevelt had been overly enthusiastic, Professor Nathaniel S. Shaler '62, exclaimed, "See here, Roosevelt, let me talk, I'm running this Course."
Also, his interest in studies declined in direct proportion to his attraction toward a comely young girl named Alice Hathaway Lee, of Chestnut Hill, Mass. He finally married her, but not until she had inadvertently caused the Procellian Club no little embarrassment.
First Lady in Pore
It was Roosevelt's doing, rather than hers, that Miss Lee has the distinction of being the first woman over admitted into the Porcellian clubhouse. The incident, which almost cost Roosevelt his membership, came after a walk through the Yard in the spring of 1879. Halfway through the Yard, Roosevelt noticed it was time for lunch, and promptly took her to the club, where, amidst scandalized whispers, they had luncheon.
Roosevelt had no official connection with the University for the next 15 years, but in 1895, he was prominent enough as a Police Commissioner of New York City to be named to the Board of Overseers. Even then, his interest could not be called intense. He once described his first meeting to a friend, "I felt like a bull dog who had strayed into a symposium of perfectly clean, white Persian cats."
Almost Harvard's President
The University began to occupy his mind, however, as his presidential term was running out in 1908. While he prepared to leave the Presidency, Roosevelt began to look around for an occupation suited to the dignity of an ex-President. He did not want to serve as a figurehead for some corporation, not did he particularly wish to make a living writing, although he was soon to classify himself, as a "semi-retired literary gentleman." President Eliot had resigned on October 26, 1908 and the Corporation was shopping around for a successor to Eliot. Roosevelt's name received immediate consideration. Many of the Faculty, especially William James were eager to pick Roosevelt, but most of the alumni, basically conservative, opposed him. Henry Lee Higgenson expressed their common opinion when he said. "We need a man of Judgement, and is judgement over to be found coupled with tusch enormous energy?" Roosevelt was eliminated, and Lowell selected. During the rest of his life, Roosevelt retained only a perfunctory interest in his duties as an alumnus.
Roosevelt's life was so varied and his interest so extensive that the associations was faced with a tremendous task in recording it with Justices. There were no precedents for Miss Cordingly, the custodian, to follow in her attempts to arrange the huge mass of material in some sort of order. As a result of the detailed minute in the library, the cataloguing system was both individualistic and complicated. Miss Cordingly's death left the library personnel confused as to the library's details, partly because the catalogue had become somewhat disorganized in its move from New York, partly because of its individualistic nature.
Library Problems
The library now finds itself with a custodian with undefined functions books that are beginning to show signs of wear, and--because of its continued increase in size--a collection that has overflowed the space originally assigned it. For this reason, the library staff has had to resort to expedients in handling the collection. Maintenance as a separate library-within-a-library has proved inefficient, but the association has successfully opposed any effort to integrate the collection with the rest of the American History holdings, and led by Hagedorn, has campaigned for a separate library similar to Widener's Classics Library.
Open conflict has so far been avoided because the University has made no attempt to revise the collection or its handling. President necessities, however, point toward some sort of integration in the near future it the collection is to fulfill its pledge to be available "for scholarly research by sincerely interested persons."
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