Teddy Roosevelt

One of our most exciting and storied presidents.

At 42, the youngest man to become president, he would later become the first known by just his initials: TR. Author of 35 books, he was an authority on botany as well as British naval history in the war of 1812. Historian David McCullough says he could read two books a night and quote from them five years later.

One of my favorite stories about him is that as a New York City police commissioner he would walk the streets at night to catch cops sleeping on the job. While a NY State assemblyman, he lost his young wife and mother on the same evening. The subsequent grief would lead to his time as a cowboy, rancher and sheriff in North Dakota.

His work as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and Policies as President would help turn the United States into a global power.

As a warrior he would resign his job as Assistant Secretary of the Navy to seek combat in the Spanish American War with the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry he would form. Comprised of those from his many walks of life, it included seasoned Dakota Bad Lands toughs, Ivy Leaguers, polo players, a tennis champion, New York City cops, Pawnee scouts. He had more applicants than he could accept. Newspapers nicknamed them "The Rough Riders."

After his presidency he tried to convince President Wilson to allow him back into combat in WWI. He was also the first American to win a Nobel Price, wining the Peace Price in 1906 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese war.

TR In his Rough Rider Uniform

This image is available from the United States Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division