Interpretive Themes for Artist and Author

 

Young Theodore Roosevelt

NPS

Overcoming Adversity

The comfort and opportunities inherent in the wealthy, Victorian-era home and family life that Roosevelt experienced as a youth helped him overcome a potentially limiting childhood illness and develop into an intellectually and physically bold adult who welcomed and successfully navigated numerous challenges in his public life. That same intrepid and ambitious approach to life developed in his youth led him to build a successful political career in spite of the restrictions common to members of the upper class in the late 19th century.

 

NPS/THRB

The Conservation Movement

Roosevelt’s insatiable scientific curiosity, his appreciation of nature, and his life as an avid outdoorsman and explorer, all instilled in boyhood, largely contributed to his role as a leader of the conservation movement, culminating in his pioneering work as president in setting national standards for the preservation of cultural and natural resources.

 

NPS/THRB

Theodore Roosevelt as Reformer

Roosevelt’s strong beliefs in merit, achievement, and progress based on empirical evidence and the scientific method as applied to social problems laid the foundation for his career as a reformer and were dramatically articulated throughout his public life, beginning with his role as a state legislator, through his term as 26th president of the United States.

 

NPS/THRB

Vision for America’s Future

Heralding a vision of America as a world power and an equitable society at home, President Roosevelt guided the United States into the 20th century while creating a modern model of the presidency as the center of the nation’s political life.

 

NPS/THRB

Preservation of Childhood Home

Foreshadowing the idea of the modern presidential library, what is now Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site was established by two private historical organizations, the Women’s Roosevelt Memorial Association and the Theodore Roosevelt Association, as a combined museum and research facility that would illustrate the environment that influenced Roosevelt’s youth and serve to perpetuate the memory, legacy, and political principles of the nation’s 26th president.