Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library

Congratulations to 2026 @ChristophersInc Award winner @nchurnin, author of A Teddy Bear for Emily–and President Roosevelt, Too. The honor celebrates authors whose work “affirms the highest values of the human spirit.” 🥳 Join us for a virtual program featuring Nancy Churnin on Monday, May 11. This event is free and open to the virtual public. Meet us at our YouTube, LinkedIn, or Facebook (all links in bio) at 5:30 p.m. MT / 7:30 p.m. ET to tune in! #theodoreroosevelt #library #christopheraward #booktalk

Our native plants are pretty photogenic, but they're also restoring our prairie ecosystem 📸🪴 TRPL launched the Native Plant Project in partnership with Resource Environmental Solutions (RES) and @NDSU to reintroduce native plant species to our 93-acre site. We hope to cultivate a thriving ecosystem that sustains wildlife, enriches the soil, and fosters meaningful human connection with the natural world. #trpl #livingbuildingchallenge #nativeplantproject

#OTD in 1902, Secretary of the Navy John Davis Long resigned from President Roosevelt's cabinet, replaced by William Henry Moody. Long's departure closed a chapter that had been central to Roosevelt's rise. As Secretary of the Navy, Long had hired Roosevelt as his assistant in 1897 — and quickly discovered that his new deputy had more energy, ambition, and strong opinions than any three normal staffers combined. Their working relationship was productive but occasionally alarming. Most famously, when Long stepped out of the office for an afternoon in February 1898, Roosevelt seized the moment to send cables across the Pacific that helped position the fleet for what would become the Battle of Manila Bay. Long returned to find his assistant had essentially ordered a navy to prepare for war. Long was philosophical about it. He recognized Roosevelt's talent even when it exasperated him. And Roosevelt, for his part, never forgot that Long had given him the opportunity that launched his national career. By 1902, Roosevelt was president and Long was ready for private life. Their partnership had produced one of the most consequential transitions in American military history — and had helped set the stage for the United States to emerge as a global power. #OTD #OnThisDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #TeddyRoosevelt #TRHistory #USNavy #PresidentialHistory #AmericanHistory

#OTD in 1902, the Chinese Exclusion Act was extended indefinitely under President Theodore Roosevelt's administration. This is not one of the proud chapters in Roosevelt's legacy — but it is an honest one, and honesty is what a presidential library owes the public. The original Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 had barred Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States. In 1902, Congress voted to extend these restrictions indefinitely, and Roosevelt signed the legislation. The law reflected deep anti-Asian prejudice that was widespread across both political parties and much of American society at the time. Roosevelt's record on race and immigration was complicated and often contradictory. He invited Booker T. Washington to dinner at the White House — a bold act that drew fierce criticism from white Southerners. He appointed Black Americans to federal positions in the South. But he also presided over the Brownsville Affair, in which an entire regiment of Black soldiers was dishonorably discharged on disputed evidence. Understanding Roosevelt fully means sitting with these contradictions. He was a man of extraordinary vision and significant blind spots. His legacy is richer — and more useful — when we see both. #OTD #OnThisDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #TeddyRoosevelt #TRHistory #AmericanHistory #PresidentialHistory

#OTD in 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Kinkaid Act into law, expanding homesteading opportunities in the Sand Hills of western Nebraska. The law allowed settlers to claim 640 acres of land — four times the standard homestead — in a region where 160 acres simply wasn't enough to make a living. The dry, sandy grasslands of western Nebraska required much larger plots for successful ranching. The Kinkaid Act reflected Roosevelt's firsthand understanding of western land. He'd been a rancher in the Badlands of Dakota Territory. He knew that what worked east of the Mississippi didn't always work on the Great Plains. Land policy needed to match the reality of the landscape. Roosevelt's ranching years gave him a perspective that most eastern politicians lacked. When debates about western settlement, grazing, water rights, and conservation came to his desk, he could draw on lived experience — not just reports from bureaucrats. As he once said of his time in North Dakota: "If it had not been for my years in North Dakota, I never would have become President of the United States." #OTD #OnThisDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #TeddyRoosevelt #TRHistory #NorthDakota #Badlands #AmericanWest #AmericanHistory

Curator Talk: Behind the Scenes with the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library x.com/i/broadcasts/1…

TONIGHT! What does it take to build a presidential library? Join Senior Curator Sue Sarna for a behind-the-scenes look at the process—from shaping big ideas to making tough choices about what stories, objects, and moments are included. This event is free and open to the virtual public. Meet us at our YouTube, LinkedIn, or Facebook (all links in bio) at 5:30 PM MT/7:30 PM ET to tune in! #theodoreroosevelt #library #museum #collections #exhibits #bts

#OTD we pause to remember something TR rarely admitted: he was human. For a man who had built his entire identity around physical vigor and "the strenuous life," illness was almost offensive. Roosevelt had conquered severe childhood asthma through sheer willpower. He had boxed, wrestled, hunted, and ridden horses with an intensity that alarmed his doctors and delighted the press. But the body he'd built through determination wasn't invincible. He was blind in one eye from a boxing match in the White House. He carried a bullet in his chest from an assassination attempt. And during his spring 1905 hunting expedition through Oklahoma and Colorado, even TR had to rest — briefly ill before getting back on the trail. He recovered and returned to the hunt. Of course he did. But the moments when Roosevelt was forced to pause remind us that his extraordinary energy wasn't effortless — it was earned, every single day. The strenuous life wasn't a gift. It was a choice. #OTD #OnThisDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #TeddyRoosevelt #TRHistory #StrenousLife #AmericanHistory

The Library's exhibits begin with a childhood home. You approach a recreation of T.R.'s brownstone on East 20th Street in New York City and step inside a warm Victorian parlor — family portraits on the walls, a piano playing softly, the sounds of a close-knit family filling the space. This is where it all started. A sickly boy named Teedie, who could barely breathe through his asthma attacks, spent his days reading about frontiersmen and explorers and dreaming of a life of adventure. His father's Bible is there. The charter for the American Museum of Natural History — drafted in the Roosevelts' parlor — is there. A specially made plush red velvet chair, bought by his father to help him avoid asthma attacks, is there. The Library walks you through the moments that built Theodore Roosevelt — starting with the boy who had to build himself first. Tickets on sale now. trlibrary.com/visit #TRLibrary #TheodoreRoosevelt #Medora #NorthDakota #PresidentialLibrary #AmericanHistory #OpeningJuly4

NEW: @vivek_murthy — 19th & 21st U.S. Surgeon General — joins Good Citizen. Loneliness is as deadly as smoking. More than half of 18–24 year-olds say they have little to no sense of purpose. And our phones are quietly disrupting the connections that hold us together. Dr. Murthy and @TedRooseveltV on the triad of fulfillment — relationships, purpose, service — and what we have to rebuild. "We have to stitch together the social ties... and we have to do that from a cultural perspective." Listen: ow.ly/hV6a50YQ1SI #GoodCitizen #StayingHuman #PublicHealth #TRPL

Congratulations to our Executive Director Robbie Lauf — a 2026 Horizon Award recipient from the @NDSU Foundation. Robbie has been part of building this Library since 2018 — first as a member of the Board of Trustees, then as Director of Partnerships and Programming, and now as Executive Director. By the time we open these doors on July 4, that's eight years of work toward a single project. A Mayville kid, fourth-generation Bison, and student body president at NDSU before he graduated in 2015 — Robbie has spent his career working on things that matter to North Dakota. In his own words: "Helping to bring this library to life has been the honor of my career. It's about preserving a legacy while creating lasting cultural and economic impact for my home state." Well-earned, Robbie. 🦬 Read the full story: ow.ly/jKS550YQ1FG

In April 1908, Theodore Roosevelt's Great White Fleet was in the midst of one of the most audacious demonstrations of American power in history. Sixteen gleaming white battleships had departed Hampton Roads, Virginia, on December 16, 1907, carrying 14,000 sailors on a 14-month voyage around the world. By April, the fleet had already rounded South America and was making its way through the Pacific. Roosevelt had conceived the voyage as both a military exercise and a diplomatic statement. The world needed to see that the United States had arrived as a global naval power. The fleet's warm reception at ports around the world proved the point. The voyage covered 43,000 miles and returned to Hampton Roads on February 22, 1909, just days before Roosevelt left office. He would later call it his proudest achievement as president. The Great White Fleet was pure Roosevelt: bold, theatrical, and strategically brilliant. It announced to the world what Roosevelt had believed since his days as Assistant Secretary of the Navy — that a strong navy wasn't a threat to peace. It was a guarantor of it. #OnThisDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #TeddyRoosevelt #TRHistory #GreatWhiteFleet #USNavy #AmericanHistory

On this date in 1947 — April 25 — President Harry Truman signed legislation establishing Theodore Roosevelt National Memorial Park in the North Dakota Badlands. It was the only National Memorial Park ever created, and it honored the president whose love for this landscape helped launch America's conservation movement. In 1978, the park was redesignated as a full national park. Today, it covers more than 70,000 acres across three units, and it's home to bison, elk, wild horses, and some of the most spectacular scenery in the country. 70 days from now, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opens in Medora — right at the park's South Unit entrance. T.R.'s story and T.R.'s landscape, together. Tickets on sale now. trlibrary.com/visit #OpeningJuly4 #TRLibrary #TheodoreRoosevelt #Medora #NorthDakota #GrandOpening #CountingDown #NationalPark #TRNP

#OTD in 1898, Congress formally declared war on Spain — and Theodore Roosevelt, sitting at his desk as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, began making plans to leave it. Roosevelt had spent months pushing for this war. He believed the United States had a moral obligation to act in Cuba. He'd maneuvered the Navy into readiness, positioned Admiral Dewey's fleet for action in the Pacific, and lobbied anyone who would listen. He had done, by every measure, exactly what his job required. Now the war was real. And Roosevelt had a problem. He had preached this fight loudly and publicly for more than a year. He had argued that American men had a duty to serve when their country called. If he stayed at his comfortable desk in Washington while others went to Cuba, he would be, in his own words, "distinctly ashamed." So on April 25, as the declaration was being signed, Roosevelt began organizing what would become the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry — the regiment history would call the Rough Riders. He wouldn't resign from the Navy until May 6. He wouldn't reach San Antonio to begin training until May 7. The commission, the uniform, the charge up Kettle Hill — all of that was still weeks away. But the decision was made on this day. The desk job was over. "I should feel distinctly ashamed," he wrote to a friend, "if I now failed to practice what I preached." #OTD #OnThisDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #TeddyRoosevelt #TRHistory #RoughRiders #SpanishAmericanWar #GetInTheArena #AmericanHistory

@JEdunn, the social media team needs you 🫵 #trpl #construction #presidentiallibrary #goodsports

Happy #ArborDay! If there's one American president who earned the right to celebrate this day, it's Theodore Roosevelt. During his presidency, Roosevelt established 150 national forests — an extraordinary commitment to protecting America's trees and the ecosystems they sustain. In 1905, he signed the law that effectively created the United States Forest Service, placing the nation's forest reserves under the care of a new agency led by his close ally, the forester Gifford Pinchot. Roosevelt and Pinchot shared a philosophy that set the tone for American conservation for generations: conservation for use. They believed forests should be protected not as untouchable relics, but as living resources to be managed wisely for the benefit of present and future generations. That philosophy was born in the landscape of the American West. Roosevelt saw firsthand — as a rancher in the North Dakota Badlands in the 1880s — what happened when land was overgrazed and forests were stripped without thought for tomorrow. It convinced him that the federal government had a responsibility to think long-term. In his autobiography, Roosevelt wrote about his time as governor of New York, worrying about the ecological impact of unchecked development on the state's forests and streams. That concern only deepened when he reached the White House. Today, as you plant a tree or appreciate the ones around you, you're participating in a tradition that Roosevelt helped make part of the American story. #ArborDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #TeddyRoosevelt #Conservation #NationalForests #Trees #TRPL

#OTD in 1903, Theodore Roosevelt dedicated the Roosevelt Arch at the entrance to Yellowstone National Park — a gateway that still welcomes visitors today. It was the final day of Roosevelt's two-week camping trip through the park with naturalist John Burroughs. The president who had entered Yellowstone planning to hunt was leaving as the conservation president. And the gateway he helped dedicate that morning would become a permanent symbol of that transformation. The Roosevelt Arch carries an inscription from the Organic Act of 1872 that created Yellowstone: "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People." Roosevelt's presence at the cornerstone ceremony was a deliberate statement. National parks belonged to all Americans. Public lands were a democratic inheritance. The arch itself would be completed in August. But Roosevelt's commitment, made on this spot, was already complete. More than a century later, the Roosevelt Arch still stands at the north entrance to Yellowstone. Every visitor who passes through it walks in Theodore Roosevelt's footsteps. #OTD #OnThisDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #TeddyRoosevelt #TRHistory #Yellowstone #NationalParks #Conservation #RooseveltArch

Things to know before you plan your Medora trip: Medora sits right off I-94 in western North Dakota. It's a real town — 121 year-round residents, a handful of great restaurants, lodges and cabins, and a main street you can walk in ten minutes. It's also the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park (South Unit entrance is right in town) and, starting July 4, home to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. The Medora Musical — a live outdoor country-western revue at the Burning Hills Amphitheatre — runs June 3 through September 12. It seats 2,800 people, features live horses on stage, and ends with fireworks under the Badlands sky. Kids 17 and under get in free on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Bully Pulpit Golf Course, carved right out of the Badlands, is rated one of America's top 100 public courses. Point to Point Park has a zipline, mini golf, and a lazy river. The Chateau de Morès is a 26-room mansion from 1883 that's now a state historic site. You could easily spend three days here and wish you'd planned for four. Start at trlibrary.com/visit. #Medora #NorthDakota #VisitNorthDakota #Badlands #TRLibrary #RoadTrip #TravelUSA #TheodoreRoosevelt #NationalPark

#OTD in 1910, Theodore Roosevelt stood before a packed amphitheater at the Sorbonne in Paris and delivered what would become one of the most quoted speeches in American history. Roosevelt was an ex-president now, one year removed from the White House, fresh from an eight-month safari across East Africa. He was 51 years old and already thinking about coming home and getting back into the arena. He spoke about citizenship, about courage, about the difference between the critic and the doer. And then he arrived at the passage that would echo for more than a century: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." The hall erupted. The speech was printed and distributed in 57,000 copies across Europe and America. More than a century later, it's still being read, quoted, and lived. #OTD #OnThisDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #TeddyRoosevelt #TRHistory #ManInTheArena #DareGreatly #GetInTheArena #Leadership #AmericanHistory

Theodore Roosevelt watched the buffalo disappear. When he arrived in the Badlands in September 1883, a final great herd of perhaps 300,000 bison had been slaughtered just months earlier by professional hunters. The bones of the dead animals lay scattered across the prairie. Roosevelt hunted the survivors — and the experience changed him. He began to understand what unchecked exploitation of the land could do. The vanishing buffalo, the overgrazed range, the careless destruction of wilderness — all of it planted seeds that would flower during his presidency, when he conserved 230 million acres, established 150 National Forests, 51 Federal Bird Reservations, 5 National Parks, and 18 National Monuments. Today, bison are back in Theodore Roosevelt National Park — reintroduced in 1956 and thriving. Elk returned in 1985. The land T.R. loved is healing. And this July 4, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opens in Medora to tell the full story of how one man's experience in this landscape launched America's conservation legacy. Happy Earth Day. Plan your visit at trlibrary.com/visit. #EarthDay #TheodoreRoosevelt #Conservation #Medora #NorthDakota #Badlands #WalkInHisFootsteps #TRLibrary #PublicLands #NationalPark