Directors' Update
We often look at the past “as a foreign country” believing that “back then” people did things differently.[1] In truth, much continuity exists. Nowhere is this more accurate than in American politics. Despite popular narratives that claim we are in entirely new territory, or that Americans are more polarized than ever, or that the country is on the verge of something – either greatness or collapse – the reality is that American politics have always been acrimonious. Passions have spilled into violence many times in our 250 years of existence. The “newness” of the internet and social media makes it feel as though political journalism is entirely different now. Looking at TR’s era shows us the consistency of news coverage.
Roosevelt famously installed the press office in the West Wing and began offering reporters daily press releases to better manage the hive of reporters that buzzed around the White House. As open and accessible as this sounds, Roosevelt culled journalists who reported “fake news.” When the Boston Herald misreported that Roosevelt’s tortured a turkey ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the White House cut off the newspaper from these press releases. They blacklisted the Herald. Even the U.S. Weather Bureau was instructed to stop providing data to the newspaper.
As popular as Roosevelt was among Republicans (and many Democrats, too), it is worth remembering that Democratic newspapers wrote scathing stories about the president. Some irritated Roosevelt so much that he sued. In 1908, during the presidential election that would seal Roosevelt’s legacy as one of the most popular presidents, the New York World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer ran a story that alleged Roosevelt and Taft family members profited off the construction of the Panama Canal. It became a live political issue when the chair of the Democratic National Committee insisted that an investigation take place. The accusations had no merit. Rather than ignore the accusation, Roosevelt sued Pulitzer’s newspaper. The president’s lawsuit found no quarter given the First Amendment and the lack of federal authority in criminal libel cases, but the case has reverberated throughout the century as an attack on media inaccuracy.
For as many political cartoons that depicted Roosevelt as a smiling pugilist fighting the trust or the national savior protecting Americans from rotten meat, there existed as many uglier portraits. Illustrators cast Roosevelt as the two-faced Roman god Janus, or Mars, the impetuous god of war. As frequently, he was drawn as a child tearing around the White House, sometimes with a golden crown on his head. And the big stick cut both ways, too. It was a symbol of righteousness and a self-serving cudgel.
Perhaps William Faulkner’s famous quote about history is more apt: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”[2]
[1] The opening line of L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between (1953) has become an iconic description of history. “The past is a different country: they do things differently there.”
[2] William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun (1951).
Hello once again from the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University! It’s been a busy month for us here, with a flurry of activity behind the scenes. To begin with, at the end of March we posted a call for our annual Summer Internship Program, and received an overwhelming number of responses. By the time applications finished coming in (several days after the window when we were actually able to consider them), we had received roughly 230 applications from across the nation and around the world! Since then, we’ve had a lengthy process to consider the various candidates, and are finally nearing the point where we’ll officially have our cohort for the summer. We’re extremely proud that our program has a strong enough repetition to get this much attention, and we hope we’re able to continue to help these young professionals get experience working in digital libraries and archives far into the future!
Beyond the preparation for out internship program, we were also the recipients of a generous bequest of a sizable collection located in Virginia, which required some staff members to physically travel out and drive it back to our offices in North Dakota! We haven’t gotten much of a chance to begin to process these various items yet, but from the work we did packing them up we know there’s a lot of interesting items there and are excited to get them in order so we can share them with all of you!
With so many new items and collections, we’re making a special push to organize our internal records and items to better be able to reference and access the materials we have. Our physical archives have historically been rather small, as we’re primarily a digital library, but with increasing interest in Theodore Roosevelt across the region, we’re needing to be sure we have our things in good order so we can accept the new collections that come our way.
While some of our staff was doing that, others from the TRC were taking part in North Dakota’s National History Day, traveling over to the State Historical Society in Bismarck, ND. We love being able to be a part of this and work with young history-minded students. We’re especially proud of being able to partner with the State Historical Society to provide some funds to help sponsor successful students to go on to the National competition.
Another community event the TRC was recently able to be a part of was the premier of Medora: Empress of the Badlands. Several staff members were able to be extras in this locally-produced movie, and Dr. Hansard was able to be present at the premier to help answer questions about the historical Medora and her husband, the Marquis de Mores.
Speaking of community events, planning continues apace for activities going on in July, concurrent with the production of Teddy and Alice on the Dickinson State University Campus, and the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, ND. We’ve also got lot of exciting things in the works for our October gathering of the TRC, Theodore Roosevelt Association and TRPL that we’ve mentioned previously!
Altogether, it’s a busy, busy time here at the Theodore Roosevelt Center, with plenty of excitement on the horizon!
To your point about TR being viewed unfavorably: Mark Hanna once said "Don't any of you realize that there's only one life between this madman and the presidency?!”