Apr 16, 2013 - Sale 2310

Sale 2310 - Lot 394

Price Realized: $ 5,520
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
Theodore Roosevelt family photograph album depicting the president and his children. 71 photographs, various sizes and media, mounted on 27 scrapbook pages. Oblong 4to, 7 x 11 inches, original plain cloth, minor wear; photographs are generally strong bright images with a few moderately faded, one has been crudely removed, while one other has been cut out but is present, pencil captions are difficult to read against the dark paper. Vp, circa 1890-1910

Additional Details

Three of these photographs depict Theodore Roosevelt. One, an early copy print, shows him with the Rough Riders circa 1898. One small image shows him standing in riding boots in front of the White House. Another shows him aboard a train with his adult son Kermit and the rector of the Groton School circa 1910.
Many of the other photos depict Roosevelt's children Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald, and Quentin. Several show the house on 19th Street in Washington where the family lived from 1891 to 1895 while he served on the Civil Service Commission. Others show the family playing at Sagamore Hill and at the White House, aboard the presidential yacht Sylph, at the Great Falls of the Potomac, and at various vacation spots.
The most likely compiler was the First Lady, Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, as most of the photographs depict her young children. The captions were likely added later by one of her children, as a photograph of her sister is captioned "Aunt Emily." Inserted slips of paper in a later hand help provide additional identifications.