Primary Sources: U.S. Presidents

"This letter contains what is thought to be the first recorded use of the phrase "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick," which was later to become a trademark description of Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy. "

"The 1912 presidential election offered American voters a choice between a conservative and generally unpopular Republican incumbent (William Howard Taft), a moderate governor who won the heavily contested Democratic nomination (Woodrow Wilson), third party candidate former President Theodore Roosevelt, and a Socialist Party candidate running for the fourth time (Eugene V. Debs). Angered over what he felt was a betrayal of his policies by Taft, his hand-picked successor, Roosevelt and others abandoned the Republican party and founded the Progressive or “Bull Moose” Party. Voter interest, already piqued by the unusual campaign and the candidates’ slashing attacks on one another, was further heightened by the availability of sound recordings of campaign addresses and, for the first time, film footage of the candidates on the campaign trail. In this recorded speech, entitled “The Liberty of the People,” Roosevelt took the most openly pro-labor stance of the three major candidates. When the voters went to the polls in November, however, Wilson was the clear victor." GMU History Matters

"Consisting of 104 motion pictures and four sound recordings, the majority of the motion pictures (87) are from the Theodore Roosevelt Association Collection in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) at the Library of Congress."

SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 1905

This site provides information and sample articles related to Theodore Roosevelt's administration available through the Chronicling America project. It also provides additional search suggestions for locating more materials.

"Consisting of 104 motion pictures and four sound recordings, the majority of the motion pictures (87) are from the Theodore Roosevelt Association Collection in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) at the Library of Congress."

The Strenuous Life, The Man in the Arena: Citizenship in a Republic (Not the critic who...), "It takes more than that to Kill a Bull Moose": The Leader and the Cause, 1905 Inaugural Speech

December 3, 1901, December 2, 1902, December 7, 1903, December 6, 1904, December 5, 1905, December 3, 1906, December 3, 1907, and December 8, 1908

This site from the Library of Congress includes pictures, films, and documents related to the inauguration.

"The mission of the Theodore Roosevelt Center is to gather together and digitize copies of all Roosevelt-related items, to make his legacy more readily accessible to scholars and schoolchildren, enthusiasts and interested citizens. Items in the digital library include correspondence to and from Roosevelt, diary entries, notes, political cartoons, scrapbooks, newspaper columns and magazine articles by and about Roosevelt, speeches, and photographs. Users can also view film clips and listen to audio recordings."

Information on the Theodore Roosevelt Collection at Harvard University.

Books by Roosevelt available at Project Gutenberg.

According to the website, The Library of Congress has plans to digitize Roosevelt's papers. At this time there are only a few selections available from his diary. (3/18/2011)