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Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919
Born New York City
By 1907, Theodore Roosevelt was at the height of his powers and nearing the end of his presidency. Having served out the term of the assassinated President William McKinley starting in 1901, Roosevelt had been elected in his own right in 1904. He yielded to the two-term precedent and chose not to run in 1909.Roosevelt had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War; this personal triumph also marked America's growing influence in world diplomacy. Domestically, Roosevelt expanded the reach and power of the chief executive by forcefully pushing through his Progressive agenda on the regulation of trade, industry, and the economy; he signed the Pure Food and Drug Bill in 1906, as well as a major law creating national monuments. Politically, Roosevelt was busy stage-managing his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft. Although he proclaimed Taft a true Progressive, Roosevelt eventually turned against him, opposing him in the 1912 presidential election.
Harris & Ewing Studio, 1907 |