Important Teddy Roosevelt Letter of June, 1911

Presenting a very important Teddy Roosevelt Letter of June 1911 .

On ‘The Outlook’ letterhead. Typed and personally signed and amended by President Theodore Roosevelt.

Dated June 20th 1911.

What makes this letter so important is the author, the office and the content.

It refers to the beliefs and opinions of the then President and First Lady (Edith) towards the women’s sufferage and empowerment movement that was the ‘hot topic’ of the time.

It is addressed to Eliza Calvert Hall/Obenchain who was a well known author at the end of the 19th Century and Early 20th Century. In 1905, Teddy referred to her book “Aunt Jane of Kentucky’ in a speech and recommended that every man in America should read it to understand ‘the plight of their womenfolk’. He regularly corresponded with her and we have a number of those letters in our collection. It appears that both he and Edith became big fans of Mrs Hall/Obenchain who was also heavily involved in the Suffragist movement.

The letters also provide a fascinating and historic record of Roosevelt’s personal beliefs and feelings on female empowerment.

The Letter Reads:
The Outlook

287 Fourth Avenue

New York

Office of Theodore Roosevelt

June 20th, 1911

“My dear Miss Hall:

I am touched by your sending me “To Love and To Cherish”. But then, I am one of those included in the dedication, for I well know and dearly love ” Aunt Jane of Kentucky”. Mrs. Roosevelt and I do not feel that the hero ought to have yielded to his wife’s feelings ! Ultimately it was doing an injustice to her and to his children, as well as to the State. It is a good thing to have a Governor’s wife a woman who can be as gracious a hostess, and of as fine a type, as Dolly Madison: but it is not essential, and if the woman is a good woman, and does not make absurd pretensions, then no matter how plain she is, no matter if she was a barefoot mountaineer in her youth, I cannot imagine anybody worth his salt failing to respect her: and I think that she and her husband ought to respect themselves too much to be capable of even feeling humiliated, or, what is quite as bad, of feeling defiant and angry over the situation. My own Congressman, while I was at the White House, never wore evening dress: but this never made him feel ashamed or out of place when he dined with us: and he would have been just the same if he had had a wife. Of course, I should have despised him if he had made a parade of not wearing ordinary evening clothes, but he took his position simply and naturally, and as long as that was the case, I did not care a rap what he wore.

Very sincerely yours,

Theodore Roosevelt

I wish I could see you !“