Directors' Update
Welcome back to the Bully Pulpit and this month’s post from the co-directors. Today’s post covers some of the latest updates at the Center, but we kick off with a little historical remembrance of Roosevelt’s first July as president.
Anniversaries are like alarm clocks: they ring out to remind us about the past. The anniversaries that end in a zero or a double zero (centenaries) ring especially loud.
This month, 123 years ago, Theodore Roosevelt experienced the first “dog days” of summer as the nation’s president. And July was important …
One of the great misconceptions about Theodore Roosevelt centers on his foreign policy. Historians have often justified calling him an imperialist based on the colonization of the Philippines and other territories acquired after the Spanish-American War (this includes Puerto Rico, Guam, and Hawaii).
A basic historical timeline shows that Roosevelt was neither president nor vice-president when these places became part of the United States. McKinley pushed for Congress to acquire Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and he single-handedly decided to purchase the Philippines.
When Roosevelt became president, he initiated several democratic reforms. The most important of these changes focused on bringing peace and representative government to the Philippine Islands in the summer of 1902. Roosevelt’s Memorial Day speech declared the Philippine-American War over – it was not over and insurgent activity continued for a decade or more – but the declaration allowed Roosevelt to push Republicans in Congress to begin the gradual process of democratization. On July 1, he signed the Philippine Organic Act, which created the elected Philippine Assembly in Manila – the first directly elected legislative body in the country’s history. The Act also established civil rights through a Bill of Rights and gave Filipinos representation in the U.S. Congress (two non-voting members).
Washington still had extensive power. It appointed the executive leadership in Manila and appointed all of the personnel. But this was a start.
Roosevelt used the July 4 holiday to unilaterally announce that any Filipino insurgent who had fought against American forces would be granted amnesty. And to show that the administration meant business, Roosevelt addressed an emerging scandal with the greatest seriousness. Reports of atrocities conducted by the U.S. Army in the Philippines had reached a fever pitch. Returning soldiers told of commanding officers who ordered them burn, kill young men, and terrorize the colony. Roosevelt pushed the War Department to prosecute military officers by court martial. In July 1902, Roosevelt forced the worst offender, Brigadier General Jacob H. Smith, to retire. Smith had ordered his men to kill boys as young as 10 and to make the Philippines “a howling wilderness.”
Roosevelt’s detractors said that Smith’s retirement was lenient. They said that democratic reform did not happen quickly enough. They said that Americans still faced down an insurgency in the Philippines. But democratic reform did begin in July. The pace and ferocity is debatable, but the fact remains that change happened when Roosevelt came to the White House.
So far as the operations at the Theodore Roosevelt Center go, work continues apace! This year, we were pleased to be able to return to running our summer internship program, and the season has started with great success.
We began accepting applications for the intern program in late March, with interviews and the hiring process running through April, before finally kicking off the actual internship at the beginning of June. We had a massive amount of interest this year, with approximately 225 applicants reaching out to us from across the nation and around the globe. Of those, we had a challenging process to winnow the field to a final eight, who impressed us with their qualifications and who seemed like they would be able to get a lot out of the internship we offer. Library Science and Archives is a very competitive field, and we’re happy to be able to work with these up-and-coming students and scholars!
During the training phase of the program, we walk our interns through the various steps of working in the digital library, helping them understand the standards we use for cataloging, and giving them tips and tricks for how to read, research, and describe items. Now that they have completed this stage, they have the freedom to set their own schedule and are working on cataloging the variety of items assigned to them.
Most of the materials they’re working with this year are from the Library of Congress’s Collection featuring documents from 1911. However, we also plan to give them some variety by allowing them to work on some recently-acquired postcard collections. As they continue to work through the summer, you’ll see many of the materials they touch coming to the Digital Library soon.
In addition to cataloging work, we like to give our interns a chance to produce some sort of digital humanities project reflecting the work they do over the summer. For past seasons, this has come in the form of timelines, story maps, blog posts, encyclopedia articles, and more, and provides a more concrete product for interns to be able to include and reference on a resume as they move towards looking for permanent positions in the field. This year, we’re also considering other methods that may allow them to present their work to each other and outside audiences.
To wrap this up, we’d just like to show off some of our new lobby signage! We mentioned this in our last update, and are pleased with how things turned out. Visitors to the Theodore Roosevelt Center’s physical gallery are now better greeted and introduced to what the space has to offer.
We’ve also been able to provide some general information about Theodore Roosevelt’s life and family through a timeline and family tree highlighting some of the important people and events in Roosevelt’s life.
We’re “dee-lighted” with how these new features turned out and hope that they’ll make the gallery a more welcoming and informative place for all our visitors. If you’re ever in North Dakota, be sure to stop by to say hello!
One last note before we go: the Theodore Roosevelt Center would love to hear from you about who you are and how you interact with us online! Please take a few minutes to help us by answering a quick survey before August 25. We’ll be drawing 10 lucky people to receive a small gift!
Wow, General Jacob H. Smith was some piece of work! Not too good at telling the truth. How many times can you be court-martialed? Great work as always