Sold – Roosevelt ALS to Beloved Son Quentin, From Yellowstone National Park

Theodore Roosevelt strove for a life that embodied his ideal of assertive masculinity. He was at various times an outdoor sportsman, explorer, western rancher, and soldier, as well as an strong political leader and writer on history and public affairs. While the American people had ample opportunity to observe Roosevelt's public side, he kept his personal relationships extremely private. He was very much a family man and particularly enjoyed reading to his children and writing them letters filled with accounts of daily life and activities, and punctuated with charming little sketches, often of wildlife he had seen. The known letters were published by his son Theodore, Jr. in 1919 in “Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children.” Some letters in that book are to his youngest (and favorite) son Quentin, born in 1897, whom he called Quenty-quee.

Here is a picture of the mule that carries, among other things, my bag of clothes.

Conservation of natural wonders and natural resources became TR's legacy. He started his efforts to preserve Yellowstone National Park as early as 1894 when he as president of the Boone and Crockett Club (a hunters' organization comprised of eminent scientists, lawyers and politicians) worked with the Secretary of the Interior to enlarge the park and improve its governance. In 1903, as President, Roosevelt determined to travel through the West and visit national parks there, most especially Yellowstone, which had just become much more accessible to the public with the opening of the Northern Pacific Railway link to Gardiner, Montana, at Yellowstone’s north entrance.

On April 8, 1903, Roosevelt began his visit to Yellowstone. John Burroughs, the famed naturalist and author, accompanied the president. There were others in the President’s party, including the park’s first superintendant, Buffalo Jones, and a friend of TR’s who acted as White House pharmacist during his first term, Thomas Newkirk Phillips. To roam the park, TR borrowed a sure-footed gray horse while Burroughs was placed in a carriage pulled along by two mules. Several camps were also set up deep in the woods, far from the Secret Service and newspaper reporters. Roosevelt wore khaki pants, a dark jacket, and a Stetson. With mules carrying the group’s belongings, the men explored canyons, spied songbirds, inspected trees, and studied geographical formations.  They explored Mammoth Hot Springs and the Yellowstone and Lamar Rivers, they rode sleighs to the Upper Geyser Basin, and tried skiing around the Canyon Hotel. There were also many encounters with wildlife. Roosevelt remained at Yellowstone to lay the cornerstone of what is now called Roosevelt Arch in Gardiner on April 24. His words at the dedication ceremony still echo through the years: "The Yellowstone Park is something absolutely unique in the world…This Park was created and is now administered for the benefit and enjoyment of the people…it is the property of Uncle Sam and therefore of us all."

While at the park, he wrote a letter to 6 year old Quentin, complete with a sketch of a mule at Yellowstone carrying his gear. Autograph Letter Signed, Yellowstone Park, Wyoming note card, April 16 1903. “Blessed Quenty-quee, I love you very much. Here is a picture of the mule that carries, among other things, my bag of clothes. There are about twenty mules in the pack train. They all follow one another in single file up and down mountain paths and across streams.”?It is signed, “Your loving father.” This letter is not in “Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children”, and is believed to be unpublished and unknown until now. We obtained it directly from a descendant of Thomas Newkirk Phillips and it has been in their family for a century. It never been offered for sale. In fact, a search of auction records going back over 30 years fails to reveal any letters of TR to Quentin reaching the marketplace whatever, and just one to any son. That letter, dated 1907, to "Blessed Archie," about camping and wild game, and with three sketches, sold for $65,000.

In World War I, Quentin served as a pilot in the U.S. army air force. He was killed in action over Cambrai, France on July 14, 1918. His death devastated his father, and helped bring on TR’s own death the next year at age 60.