Roosevelt and His Era

Theodore Roosevelt Collections

The Manuscripts and Special Collections Unit of the New York State Library owns several collections of materials related to Theodore Roosevelt and his era.

A collection (SC22110) of books, manuscripts, magazine articles, sheet music, memorabilia and artifacts related to Theodore Roosevelt gathered by Lyall Squair of Syracuse over 40 years included the papers of John D. Miley (SC22109), aide-de-camp of Gen. William Shafter, commander of U.S. troops in Cuba during the Spanish-American War; a collection of postcards (PRI5399) depicting Theodore Roosevelt and subjects related to him including things named after him, teddy bears and animals he hunted, and the papers of Frederic Sturdevant, a newspaper columnist who traveled with Roosevelt in Africa.

Other Roosevelt-era material in the State Library’s collection are the typescript of Roosevelt’s most famous work, The Rough Riders, which includes TR’s annotations; the papers of Charles Sigsbee (SC16148), commander of the battleship Maine in the Spanish American War; the records of the United Spanish War Veterans of New York State (SC18859); souvenir books from the Pan American Exposition (QC16514), the exposition at which President William McKinley was shot, and the Dorr Viele letters (21574), which were written by Dorr’s family to him while he was attending Yale in 1901.