Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
15 min read
Reading time
2,867
Words
Published
32
Film credits
44
Books
6
Awards
Theodore Roosevelt, at 42 years and 322 days, became the youngest US president after William McKinley’s assassination in 1901. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating the Russo-Japanese War and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2001 for leading the Rough Riders at San Juan Hill. Known as the Trust Buster, he championed anti-trust policies, conservation, and the Pure Food and Drug Act. His legacy includes the teddy bear, named after him when he refused to shoot a bear cub on a hunting trip in 1902.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Theodore Roosevelt — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Theodore Roosevelt by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Theodore Roosevelt — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. arrived on October 27, 1858 in New York City with severe asthma that left him a sickly, homebound infant. His parents tried remedies and traveled globally to find a beneficial climate. Vigorous exercise eventually transformed his health. He was mostly home schooled before entering Harvard College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude in 1880. His father, Theodore Roosevelt Sr., died when Roosevelt was 19, a loss that shaped him profoundly.
Roosevelt’s political career accelerated when he served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1897 to 1898. During the Spanish-American War, he formed the Rough Riders and led the famous charge at San Juan Hill on July 1, 1898, making him a national hero. He was elected Governor of New York in 1899 and became Vice President under William McKinley in 1901. After McKinley’s assassination, Roosevelt was sworn in as the 26th President at age 42. As president, he pursued anti-trust policies, earning the nickname The Trust Buster, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating the Russo-Japanese War. He also championed the Pure Food and Drug Act after reading Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle. He built the Great White Fleet and sent it on a world voyage, asserting US naval power.
Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee on October 27, 1880. On February 14, 1884, his wife died two days after giving birth to their daughter Alice, and his mother died of typhoid fever in the same house eleven hours apart. He never spoke of his first wife again. On December 2, 1886, he married his childhood sweetheart Edith Kermit Carow. They had five children: Alice, Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin. His son Quentin was killed in World War I in 1918. Roosevelt was uncle to Eleanor Roosevelt and fifth cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Roosevelt became the first American to win a Nobel Prize in 1906 and remains the only US president to have received the Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously in 2001. His conservation efforts protected millions of acres of public lands and established national parks. The teddy bear originated from a 1902 hunting trip where he refused to shoot a bear cub, an act that inspired a toy named after him. His face is carved on Mount Rushmore. He reshaped the presidency, broke up monopolies, and championed progressive reforms that changed American society.
Browse the complete filmography of Theodore Roosevelt — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Theodore Roosevelt — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Theodore Roosevelt's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Theodore Roosevelt — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Square Deal for Every Man; That Is the Only Safe Motto for the United States.
A Vote Is Like a Rifle; Its Usefulness Depends Upon the Character of the User.
No Other President Ever Enjoyed the Presidency as I Did.
Speak Softly, and Carry a Big Stick.
A Stream Cannot Rise Larger Than Its Source.
Americans Learn Only from Catastrophe and Not from Experience.
Do What You Can, with What You Have, Where You Are.
There Is No Room in This Country for Hyphenated Americanism. the One Absolutely Certain Way of Bringing This Nation to Ruin, of Preventing All Possibility of Its Continuing to Be a Nation at All, Would Be to Permit It to Become a Tangle of Squabbling Nationalities.
To Announce That There Must Be No Criticism of the President, or That We Are to Stand by the President Right or Wrong, Is Not Only Unpatriotic and Servile, but Is Morally Treasonable to the American Public.
It Is Hard to Fail. but It Is Worse Never to Have Tried to Succeed.
The Pacifist Is as Surely a Traitor to His Country and to Humanity as Is the Most Brutal Wrongdoer.
In Life, as in a Football Game, the Principle to Follow Is: Hit the Line Hard; Don’t Foul and Don’t Shirk, but Hit the Line Hard.
The Man Who Loves Other Countries as Much as His Own Stands on a Level with the Man Who Loves Other Women as Much as He Loves His Own Wife.
Far and Away the Best Prize That Life Offers Is the Chance to Work Hard at Work Worth Doing.
When They Call the Roll in the Senate,, the Senators Do Not Know Whether to Answer ‘Present’ or ‘Not Guilty’.
Death Had to Take Roosevelt Sleeping, for If He Had Been Awake, There Would Have Been a Fight. Vice President Thomas Marshall.
It’s Not the Critic Who Counts: Not the Man Who Points Out How the Strong Man Stumbles, or Where the Doer of Deeds Could Have Done Them Better. the Credit Belongs to the Man Who Is Actually in the Arena, Whose Face Is Marred by Dust and Sweat and Blood, Who Strives Valiantly, Who Errs, Who Comes up Short Again and Again… Who Spends Himself in a Worthy Cause; Who, at the Best Knows, in the End, the Triumph of High Achievement, and Who at the Worst, If He Fails, at Least Fails While Daring Greatly.
The Punishing Incident I Have Referred to Happened When I Was Four Years Old. I Bit My Elder Sister’s Arm. I Do Not Remember Biting Her Arm, but I Do Remember Running Down to the Yard, Perfectly Conscious That I Had Committed a Crime. from the Yard I Went into the Kitchen, Got Some Dough from the Cook, and Crawled Under the Kitchen Table. in a Minute or Two My Father Entered from the Yard and Asked Where I Was. the Warm Hearted Irish Cook Had a Characteristic Contempt for Informers, but Although She Said Nothing She Compromised Between Informing and Her Conscience by Casting a Look Under the Table. My Father Immediately Dropped on All Fours and Darted for Me. I Feebly Heaved the Dough at Him, And, Having the Advantage of Him Because I Could Stand up Under the Table, Got a Fair Start for the Stairs, but Was Caught Halfway up Them. the Punishment That Ensued Fitted the Crime, and I Hope and Believe That It Did Me Good.
When You Reach the End of Your Rope, Tie a Knot and Hang On.
Little-known facts about Theodore Roosevelt — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
A photograph shows a young Theodore Roosevelt and his brother Elliot watching Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession from an upstairs window in Manhattan.
He once delivered a one-hour speech after being shot in the chest by a would-be assassin, refusing medical care until the speech was finished.
Roosevelt had a photographic memory and could recite pages of a newspaper he had just read as if reading from it; he also read two to three books a day.
He banned Christmas trees from the White House due to concern over overcutting of forests.
He had six children; his eldest daughter Alice died last at age 96, and his youngest son Quentin died first at age 20 in World War I.
He once kept a hyena as a pet at the White House.
The teddy bear originated from a 1902 hunting trip where Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear cub, deeming it unsportsmanlike; a cartoon and later toy followed.
He held a black belt in Jujitsu.
His first wife Alice and his mother died on the same day, February 14, 1884, eleven hours apart; he wrote in his diary, The light has gone out of my life.
He became the youngest US president at age 42 years and 322 days, a record held until John F. Kennedy was inaugurated at 43.
He coined the Maxwell House coffee slogan Good to the Last Drop.
He suffered from depression throughout his adult life.
As a child, he was known as Theodore Roosevelt Jr., but dropped the Jr. after his father’s early death in 1878.
During a hunting trip, he lost his spectacles and thereafter always carried a spare pair in his breast pocket; that spare pair likely saved his life during an assassination attempt.
He is called the Father of the Teddy Bear.
Until Donald Trump, he was the only US president born in New York City; he remains the only one born in Manhattan.
His second wife Edith was his childhood sweetheart.
He disliked the nickname Teddy and his friends and family never used it to his face.
He is the only person to have received both the Nobel Peace Prize 1906 and the Medal of Honor posthumously, 2001.
He had a relatively high-pitched, sometimes squeaky voice; recordings still exist.
Roosevelt said his only regret as president was not having a war, but he built the Great White Fleet, making the US a superpower.
He appears on a 30¢ US stamp in the Presidential Series 1938 and a 3¢ stamp with General Goethals 1939.
He was honored on a 32¢ stamp in the Celebrate the Century series in 1998.
He was the uncle of Eleanor Roosevelt and fifth cousin of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
He was sworn in as president on September 14, 1901 in Buffalo, New York after McKinley’s assassination.
He was known as the Trust Buster for breaking up monopolies.
In 1906 he became the first American to win a Nobel Prize; his medal is displayed in the White House Roosevelt Room.
He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in 2001 for his actions at San Juan Hill.
When nominated for Vice President in 1900, he received all votes except his own.
He was a voracious reader, often reading a book before breakfast and two to three more before bed.
He was inducted into the International Mustache Hall of Fame in 2015.
He ran unsuccessfully for mayor of New York City.
He served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy 1897-1898.
He was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners in 1955.
He was Governor of New York 1899-1900.
Severe asthma as a child was overcome through vigorous exercise.
He was both granduncle and fifth cousin once removed of Congressmen James Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr.
He championed the Pure Food and Drug Act after reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.
Although a Republican, he secretly supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in the 1888 election.
His unit in the Spanish-American War was known as Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, though he was second-in-command.
After his first wife’s death, he never spoke her name again.
He graduated Harvard in 1880 with an A.B., 22nd in a class of 177.
His voice was portrayed by Paul Giamatti in The Roosevelts: An Intimate History 2014.
Both he and Franklin D. Roosevelt survived assassination attempts; TR was shot but survived, while FDR’s attacker killed Chicago Mayor Cermak instead.
He was blind in one eye from a boxing injury.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Theodore Roosevelt.
Celebrities similar to Theodore Roosevelt — same craft, ranked by reach.
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