See It Now: A Bully President

The national him / Gordon Ross. June 15, 1910. Prints and Photographs Division.

A Nobel prizewinner, a paleontologist, a taxidermist, an ornithologist, a field naturalist, a conservationist, a big-game hunter, a naval historian, a biographer, an essayist, an editor, a critic, an orator, a civil-service reformer, a socialite, a patron of the arts, a colonel of the cavalry, a ranchman … the list goes on. Add to that the 26th president of the United States, and you’ve got Theodore Roosevelt.

Teddy was a beloved figure in American politics and a favorite subject of political cartoonists. His exuberance, larger-than-life personality and exploits lent themselves perfectly to the medium. As author Rick Marschall has stated, “Presidents were boring up until Roosevelt and boring after him.”

Marschall was on hand at the Library late last year to discuss his new book, “Bully! The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt,” the webcast of which is now available. You can watch it below.

The Library’s collection of political cartoons includes a variety of Roosevelt-related items, many coming from Puck, America’s first successful humor magazine. Roosevelt was favored on the cover more than 80 times in his career.

The youngest president at age 42, Roosevelt was also the first to have his life and career chronicled on film. The Library’s online presentation includes a selection of 87 motion pictures that represent different times and phases in his life.

Perhaps one of the most bully boons in the Library’s presidential collections are the papers of Teddy Roosevelt. Numbering some 250,000 items, they constitute one of the largest among our presidential holdings. While plans for future digitization are still being made, selections from his diaries can be see here.

Wait, there’s more. Scattered throughout the institution’s various American Memory collections, online exhibitions and other resources are assets pertaining to TR, all collected in this handy guide.

Braille Music Scores Provide Lifeline to Blind Musicians

(The following is a guest article about the Braille music collections of NLS and the musicians who use them written by my colleague Mark Hartsell, which recently appeared in the Library’s staff newsletter, the Gazette.) Ayaka Isono lost her sight to a rare retinal disorder in 2001 at age 29 and, devastated, figured her career …

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Tweeting Live: Stress and Its Impacts

We all have dealt with stress at one time or another – whether it’s the demands of work, family responsibilities, day-to-day hassles of life or all of the above. Frankly, for many people, being “stressed out” is just part of their regular routine. According to Dr. George Chrousos, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at …

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Take Those Comics Seriously!

Comics and cartoons are well-loved because they’re funny.  Most of us think of them as a break in the monotony of a working day, a light moment, a chuckle over our morning coffee. But for some, mirth is money.  Those people tend to take their comics more seriously. Take, for example, the reaction to “The …

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Full of Hot Air

A bat in the belfry? Maybe. A tree growing in Brooklyn? Sure. A light in the attic? Of course. But, a dirigible in the Library’s Jefferson Building? It happened. Walking the institution’s resplendent halls, you come across lovely murals, elaborate ornamentation, gilded embellishments, and, as it turned out the other day, two rather large balloons …

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Pic of the Week: A Simple Sunset

O setting sun! though the time has come, I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration. ~ Walt Whitman, “Song at Sunset” This picture was taken from the sixth floor balcony of the James Madison Building recently, as the sun set over Washington, D.C., bathing the sky in a lovely peach hue. …

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Unlocking Sounds of the Past

You may recall reading about some early audio recordings of Alexander Graham Bell being recently recovered. Thanks to Library of Congress technology, these recordings and others can now have a new life. The following is a story by Mark Hartsell, editor of the Library’s newsletter, The Gazette, on how the institution is working to accomplish …

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Straight to Your Inbox

Almost everything the Library of Congress does, you can get an email about it. And, no, I’m not making a “Portlandia” reference either. From our potpourri of services to general news to topic specific information – even this blog – you can be only one click away from the latest updates the institution has to …

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