Hello Ranger Ryan here.
I am here with range Alyssa.
We are at Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace.
We are wearing our National Park
Service green and gray uniforms.
The library has red wallpaper behind us.
We have a fireplace and two
bookcases beside us, as well as this
decorative chandelier. We're here
today to talk about summer vacation.
Hello Alyssa, Do you have any plans
for summer vacation?
You know, I do! In August I'm going
to take a little staycation and
explore New York a little bit more.
How about yourself?
I'm also expecting to stay home and
explore New York City. Museums and
cultural sites really intrigue me
because I love New York City history.
Yeah, New York is a huge place.
You can spend like a lifetime here
and still not get to know it.
You know,
speaking of all this summer vacation
I'm wondering -Theodore Roosevelt had
some pretty epic summer vacations,
Didn't he? Yes, he did.
Actually the family, the Roosevelt family,
even though they lived here on
East 20th St in New York City,
love to visit the country and the children
always look forward to it.
So, as an example,
little "Teedie" loved to visit
Oyster Bay, Long Island.
He visited Lower Hudson Valley,
the Palisades as well as various
locations in New Jersey. Wow!
And didn't he go to Europe as a kid?
Yes he went on two grand tours of Europe.
And that was the height of his travels.
Wow! Can you tell me more about that?
I mean it was when he was
young, before he was 14, right?
Yes.
The first trip was from May 1869 to May 1870
he visited several countries in Europe,
including England, France,
Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
And how do you know that?
We know this from Theodore
Roosevelt journals,
which I am going to show you
right here on the screen.
And he kept active,
detailed, information about his travels,
Cool! And were
there specific
places he went to while visiting
those countries, that we know of?
Yes, he was a lot of specific places.
For example,
in England he visited the
British Museum. In Rome,
he visited several sites
including the Roman Colosseum,
which I'm going to show picture
right here on the screen.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa too.
And he also, on his second trip,
he visit the Holy Lands, and
Egypt. Wow,
that sounds like quite a trip!
Were there specific activities that he partook in?
Yes,
on his trips overseas he partook
in some activities, but
other cultural sites he visited,
he visited the Roman Forum, like in
this photo right here.
But most importantly what I like
to point out is, he was very active.
Even though he had a lot of asthma
that bothered him on these trips,
he was very active. So he used to
go hiking, go climb mountains, rode horses,
And one of
his most important
accomplishments as a child,
which I am very astonished that he did,
was he climbed Mount Vesuvius
in Italy. Mount Vesuvius!
You don't say! Yeah, and so the famous
mountain that blew up and destroyed Pompeii,
he climbed as a child. That's so cool!
My gosh, and I thought I was special
for hiking a "fourteener" in
Colorado when I was in my 20s.
That's cool.
What else can you say about these trips?
It's very important to know that these trips
Were done by Theodore Roosevelt Sr. because
he wanted his children to see the world.
These trips were educational,
Like an immersion trip or homestay?
Yeah, so the kids were
able to learn about the world,
see Europe,
Asia, and learn about how different
types of people lived. This was
important because Theodore Roosevelt Sr.,
when he made these trips.
he went on one himself in 1851.
But Robert Roosevelt, his brother
who lived right next door to here,
actually told them these trips were
very important so people can communicate.
And as a result, he wanted his family
to be able to see these sites and his
children would benefit from these sites
so they would be able to develop as
intelligent and culturally exposed adults.
Wow, these sound like amazing trips.
I don't know if I ever took one as a kid.
I mean,
I did some travel around the
States and Canada, but how
would you say these trips were similar or
different than the way people vacation today?
Well, one of the most important things how
they are different, is, Theodore Roosevelt.
Senior was New York Knickerbocker.
He was one of the wealthiest New Yorkers.
He owned a company, "Roosevelt and
Son" from his father Cornelius,
and so because he had a lot of money,
he wanted his family to see the world.
So that is one way is different.
These trips for him were for
his children as I mentioned before,
to go see the world and use the
exposure of other peoples' cultures
and learn about it, to use it in their
careers as adults. Because they were
going to be upstanding,
high esteemed, people as adults. Sure.
But there are some similarities.
Not unlike many families today,
they actually like to visit their family.
It's very important to know that
Theodore Roosevelt Sr. went on this first
trip because Mittie Roosevelt, the mother,
had her two brothers overseas in England.
Now you might be wondering why are
they overseas
in England?
The Roosevelts are Dutch New
Yorkers. And Mittie was from Georgia,
right?
Yeah, so her brothers,
you have American stock families
but they're in England- why?
Well,
it's important to know that Mittie's
two brothers were in the Civil
War on the south side.
So because they were fighting for the South, for
the Confederates they were exiled.
So this was a great opportunity
in 1869 to 1870 to visit some family.
There are some
other similarities and
some of the similarities on these trips,
were basically the family love to collect
photographs, loved to collect
coins
Yeah, and one of the best things
that they actually collected
was this right here,
are these two black obelisks they got from Egypt.
These two black obelisks!
You don't say! Oh, look at that!
there's hieroglyphics here and an
inscription at the base,
although I can't read all the details of it.
That's cool. You know,
I think I know some other souvenirs
that he brought back from his trips.
Oh, really,
like what? The birds. Have you
heard about the birds?
Yes, I have heard about the birds.
Yeah, so it was his second trip.
The Egyptian Nile trips that he
went on, and apparently that one as
he, I think it was his autobiography
where he said like he treated that
trip like a scientific expedition,
he got a shotgun or some kind of gun
from his father during Christmas and he
collected over 200 specimens of birds.
200! And what's really cool about
this, is that I was looking through
photographs, and like this image right
here that you see of the African
Plovers, these are on display at the
American Museum of Natural History today,
as is the snowy owl that he
taxidermied in Oyster Bay,
but those were birds that he
collected while in Africa!
And you want to hear something
even cooler that I found? That was
this bird right here:
It's about four inches long,
it's bright green,
I think it might be a honeyeater
if I'm not mistaken-
anyone at home watching please correct
me if I'm wrong with that- and
If you look really closely at
this image here, you see that tag?
it says Theodore Roosevelt collection.
That's another bird he collected.
That's very cool.
Yeah,
it's right now in the American Museum
of Natural History Ornithology collection.
So you've got these birds,
and then what
also is cool, is if you head over
to the Theodore Roosevelt Center,
you can see letters like this: journal
entries like you and I were talking about,
and those journal entries like this
one right here that I'm showing you
from 1872, written I believe, in
December,
what's really cool is you can
actually read Theodore Roosevelt's
writing about a specific bird-
which, if I'm not mistaken-
I think he's describing a cattle egret,
like I'm showing you right here
on this screen.
So yes, total "Bird Nerd"
I'll admit it,
but it's really cool to read
about those birds that I'm familiar with,
let's say from my travels down in South
Florida when I was a ranger there, and
to realize that Theodore Roosevelt saw the
same bird in Africa. Birds are so cool!
That is very cool.
Well there is one other thing
I would like to talk about that
is very important
to Theodore Roosevelt when he
was on his vacations, is when
he went to Dresden, Germany
as a child
with his two siblings.
Actually they were supposed to be
separated because Theodore Roosevelt
senior wanted his children to be
separated because they were going to
learn German and he didn't want them together
because they would speak English together.
And why Dresden?
Because they wanted to.
They wanted to stay in Dresden
because Dresden was the cultural
capital of Europe at the time.
There was great museums there,
and cultural sites to see, and most
importantly, because of Theodore
Roosevelt senior's influence,
he had them stay with the Minkwitz Family.
Ah, the Minkwitz family.
You know, I came upon two images, like these
two that I'm bringing up on the screen.
I also found these at TR Center,
at the Theodore Roosevelt Center,
but it says that they're actually part of
our collection here.
It's a portrait of Frau
and Fraulein Minkwitz,
Just head shots of them. Oh, that's really cool.
Yeah, primary sources are so cool!
So what can you tell me
about the kind of home stay?
I mean, that's pretty different
if you're taking a vacation.
I mean, when I go on vacation,
I'm not home-staying per se,
so tell me more about that homestay.
That homestay
was very vigorous.
He stayed there for five months with
his sister and his brother.
And he had a tutor who tutored him in German,
and arithmetic.
And the German he actually gained
knowledge of very quickly, because
he actually used to sneak around
and listen to German conversations
that the Minkwitz family was having.
That sounds like Theodore for sure!
Yeah. Didn't Elliot,
Corinne and Theodore also develop--
What was it called? There was a
club that they formed? The Dresden
Literary Society.
Yes!
The Dresden Literary Society they
started and they used to read poems
an other letters to each other.
So that stay was very important
because there is one other similarity,
to vacations that he learned from
that experience that we all go through
and that is, it influenced him as an adult.
Oh? How so? It influenced him as an adult because
his experiences overseas made him into
a great President of the United States.
As President of the United States from 1901
to 1908 he was one of the first world
leaders from the United States.
Before him, the United States
wasn't really a world power.
But because of him,
the country became a world power.
So he had high standing on the world stage.
So, some of the things that helped him with his time as
president was the German culture he learned.
He had a great,
he loved German culture.
He loved the German country and
he always used to talk about it
as President and now is because
of his vacation time in Dresden,
and so it influenced him in that way.
He knew multiple languages, which
is very important for a
politician on the world stage,
and as a result, he knew German
and French. And most importantly,
traveling overseas helped him because
he was the 1st president of the
United States to leave the country.
Where did he go? Panama, Panama Canal!
Yep, he was the first president to
leave the country for Panama.
Very cool! He also was able to
learn from these trips is, while
he always loved the outdoors,
it enabled him to even the love the outdoors,
even more so. As an adult,
for example, after finishing
his presidency in 1908,
he went on an African safari with
his son Kermit and hunted.
And didn't he go to Brazil
too, after 1912?
Yes, the Rio da Duvida, the River of Doubt?
Yeah, that's an amazing story!
So he was very well versed in the world
because he was influenced as a child.
Gosh, what a fortunate child to do
all that traveling at such a young age!
Well Ryan,
I know that we're running out of time,
but I want to thank you so much for
chatting with us about the travels of Teedie
And they hope that you have a really
great staycation later on this summer.
Thank you,
and
we would love to hear from everybody
who's listening to this program about
where, or if, you're going to go on vacation.
And please tell us where you going!
And also remember #recreateresponsibly,
everybody! We'll see you later. Bye!