Buzz
Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, was a larger-than-life personality whose legacy is eternally magnified by his monumental presence on the side of a mountain. Like many historical figures of his stature, myths and legends have grown around him. This article aims to clarify the facts behind some of the most widely believed tales about Theodore Roosevelt.
Myth: Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt pronounced their surnames differently.
The pronunciation of "Roosevelt" has been a topic of debate for decades. A 1902 New York Times article highlighted 14 variations, ranging from “ROSA-FELT” to “ROOZE-VELT” and “RUZY-VELL” to “RUZA-FELT.” In 1903, Richard Mayne of the Department on Reading and Speech Culture, New York State Teachers’ Association, noted in the Sun that the name had over 200 pronunciations, with most people emphasizing the first syllable like "room." A popular legend suggests that Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt pronounced their names differently. As reported in a 1984 Washington Post article, Theodore’s name rhymed with “goose” (“Ruse-a-velt”), while Franklin’s rhymed with “rose” (“Rose-a-velt”). Franklin’s pronunciation eventually became the more widely accepted version.
Not so fast: Theodore Roosevelt himself clarified this misconception. In 1898, he wrote, “My name is pronounced as if spelled ‘Rosavelt,’ in three syllables, with the first syllable sounding like ‘Rose.’” (He was accustomed to the confusion; during his Harvard freshman year, he wrote to his parents about a teacher who called him Rusee-felt, noting that "hardly anyone gets my name right except as Rosy.") Later, FDR confirmed the same pronunciation. In 1932, the Chicago Tribune verified with FDR's office—while he was New York's governor—that it was indeed pronounced “Rose-a-velt.”
Other Roosevelts also chimed in: When Mayne claimed most people pronounced the first syllable like "room," Theodore's uncle, Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, countered in a letter to the Sun. He argued, “It’s risky to assume a man doesn’t know how to pronounce his own name,” emphasizing that the family used “Rose-(uh)-velt.”
While the two presidents agreed on the first part of their surname, the ending might have differed. Traditionally, Roosevelt is pronounced -velt, but in recordings of FDR’s many inaugurations, he often said his last name more like "rose-a-vult." If there was a difference, it likely lay in the final syllable.
Myth: Theodore Roosevelt once rode a moose.
The image of Theodore Roosevelt riding a moose through a lake is undeniably striking and often appears on lists of unbelievable, unedited photos. However, while it wasn’t created with modern editing software, it’s still a fabrication. The picture originated as part of a collage for the 1912 presidential election, depicting Taft on an elephant, Roosevelt on a moose, and Wilson on a donkey. In 2013, Houghton Library published a blog post explaining the image’s origins. Author Heather Cole revealed that it was likely a photo of Roosevelt on a horse, cut out and pasted onto a separate image of a moose. This explains the mismatched focus, shadows, and other inconsistencies between the man and his supposed steed.
Myth: Theodore Roosevelt is responsible for shaping the modern perception of piranhas.
This tale has appeared in numerous adventure stories—a member of an expedition ventures to the Amazon’s edge with only his mule. The mule returns alone, sparking a desperate search for the missing individual. At the water’s edge, they discover a skeleton stripped clean. The cause? Piranhas. However, this isn’t from a cheap novel; it’s a story shared with Roosevelt by his companions, documented in his 1914 book Through the Brazilian Wilderness, which recounts his South American adventures.
The book includes vivid descriptions of piranhas: they can “snap off a finger carelessly dipped in the water” and consume a cow alive. Roosevelt described them as having “a head with a short muzzle, menacing eyes, and jaws armed for cruelty, embodying pure evil ferocity.”
Roosevelt’s work is often cited as the source of piranhas’ fearsome reputation. However, he wasn’t the first to portray them this way.
As early as 1880, Scientific American reported, “They can easily bite off an ounce of flesh from a man’s leg. Fatal attacks on humans do occur. Brazilians avoid lakes and streams suspected of harboring these fish. Fishermen claim piranhas swarm and attack larger fish.” An account from roughly 30 years before Roosevelt’s birth notes, “Horses and cattle drink cautiously, barely touching the water’s surface, yet their noses are often bitten. Even the cayman flees, exposing its soft belly to avoid their teeth. Only the otter, protected by thick fur, remains safe from their attacks.”
Although Roosevelt didn’t originate the myth, he played a significant role in popularizing the image of piranhas as vicious predators. In truth, these fish are generally calm unless provoked. They primarily feed on carrion, and some species even follow a plant-based diet.
Myth: Theodore Roosevelt overcame his asthma through physical activity.
In 2015, researchers investigated Theodore Roosevelt’s asthma, particularly the claim that he cured it through exercise at age 12. They discovered evidence of asthma attacks during his adulthood, including episodes after his first wife’s death and during a White House pillow fight with his children. On one occasion, while rushing by train to be with his second wife during labor, his daughter noted, “Both the engine and my father arrived in Oyster Bay wheezing.”
The researchers concluded that “the improvement likely coincided with the natural reduction of asthma symptoms often seen in adolescence,” suggesting Roosevelt’s efforts may not have been the sole reason for his better health.
As for how the myth persisted, Roosevelt biographer Kathleen Dalton offers an explanation. “He encouraged his friends and authorized biographers to present a positive, socially acceptable narrative of his life,” she writes. “He initiated, and they perpetuated, the myth that he willed himself free of asthma.” His sister Corinne once wrote to a biographer, “He never fully recovered and continued to suffer from it throughout his life, though less frequently in his later years.”
Myth: Theodore Roosevelt’s passion for conservation was sparked by a camping trip with John Muir.
In 1903, Roosevelt and John Muir—co-founder of the Sierra Club and its first president—embarked on a three-night camping expedition often described as “the most influential camping trip in conservation history.” This trip is frequently implied to have shaped Roosevelt’s legacy as a dedicated conservationist.
However, the issue with this narrative is that Roosevelt had already been advocating for conservation long before 1903.
In the late 1880s, Roosevelt, alongside George Bird Grinnell (editor-in-chief of Forest and Stream) and other sportsmen, co-founded the Boone and Crockett Club, serving as its first president. Historian John F. Reiger notes that this club, not the Sierra Club, was “the first private organization to address national conservation issues effectively.”
As Roosevelt himself explained in March 1893, the club consisted of men “interested in big-game hunting, the preservation of wildlife and forests, and outdoor sports, as well as exploration of remote regions.” Its constitution included a clause “to promote the preservation of large game, advocate for related legislation, and support the enforcement of existing laws.”
As president of the Boone and Crockett Club (a role he maintained until 1894), Roosevelt championed the Forest Reserve Act, which he later used as U.S. President to protect millions of acres of land. Historian Edmund Morris writes, “Due to the [Boone and Crockett Club’s] persistent advocacy on Capitol Hill, alongside other environmental groups, the Forest Reserve Act was enacted in March 1891 ... One might wonder if [Roosevelt] ever reflected, while preserving vast green expanses, on his gratitude to the young leader of the Boone and Crockett Club.” The club also played a key role in safeguarding Yellowstone in 1894.
So, how did the idea that the “conservation president” was inspired by a hike with Muir emerge? Something significant did occur. In 1902, there were 26 adjustments or creations of national forest boundaries, as per the USDA [PDF]. In 1903, this number was 17 (still higher than his predecessors—in 1900, there were only three). By 1905, it surged to 60.
Historian Anthony Godfrey offers a theory—Roosevelt’s status as an “accidental president” completing McKinley’s term allowed him to attract progressive allies to the Republican Party. After winning the 1904 election, he was empowered to reform national forestry policies. Regardless of the shift in conservation strategies, Roosevelt had been committed to the cause long before his trip with Muir.
Myth: Theodore Roosevelt coined the term Lunatic Fringe.
While Roosevelt popularized its modern usage—he wrote in 1913, “we must acknowledge that every progressive movement tends to attract a lunatic fringe”—he was likely adapting an existing phrase. An 1875 newspaper described a literal “lunatic fringe” as “the trend among young women to crop their hair and let the ends fall over their foreheads. Once called ‘bangs,’ ‘lunatic fringe’ is a more fitting term.”
Interestingly, Roosevelt’s 1913 quote about the “lunatic fringe” wasn’t from a political text but an article titled “A Layman’s Views of an Art Exhibition.” In the same piece, he remarked, “The lunatic fringe was prominently displayed at the recent art exhibition, particularly in the Cubist and Futurist sections.” He added, “People are free to call themselves Cubists, Octagonists, or Knights of the Isosceles Triangle, but such labels are as meaningless as they are absurd.”
Roosevelt later applied the term more directly in politics. After receiving a painting of one of his idols, he wrote to a friend, “I constantly battle against foolish reactionaries and those too lazy to think, while also trying to manage the lunatic fringe among reformers.” According to Safire’s Political Dictionary, the phrase gained renewed prominence in the 1940s when FDR used it to describe “fear propaganda” spread by “the lunatic fringe.”
Myth: Theodore Roosevelt was the first president not to use a Bible during his inauguration.
The history of Bible usage in presidential inaugurations is murky, especially for earlier presidents. John Quincy Adams noted, “I took the oath from a law book held by Chief Justice John Marshall,” and LBJ used a Catholic missal after Kennedy’s assassination. Calvin Coolidge is often said to have used a family Bible after Harding’s death, but in his autobiography, he clarified, “My mother’s Bible was on the table, but it wasn’t used, as Vermont and Massachusetts don’t require Bibles for oaths.”
The claim that Roosevelt didn’t use a Bible during his 1901 inauguration after McKinley’s assassination comes from Ansley Wilcox, who hosted the ceremony. In 1905’s Historic Bibles in America, Wilcox recalled, “No Bible was used. Roosevelt was sworn in with his hand raised. Bibles were available, but no one thought to use one. In New York, we rarely use Bibles for oaths outside courtrooms.”
Myth: Theodore Roosevelt was the sole savior of football during his presidency.
While Theodore Roosevelt played a pivotal role in rescuing football, Woodrow Wilson was equally influential—though his contributions came as president of Princeton, not as U.S. President.
In 1905, college football faced intense scrutiny due to numerous injuries and fatalities. Roosevelt called representatives from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton to reform the sport. A committee established new rules (detailed here), after which Roosevelt largely withdrew from further involvement in football reform.
By 1909, Harper’s Weekly questioned the presidents of Yale, Harvard, and Princeton—Dr. Hadley, Dr. Lowell, and Dr. Wilson—about the sport’s brutality, noting 27 deaths by November 21st. Wilson proposed an informal meeting to “save a very noble game.” The three schools collaborated, and by May 1910, they introduced new rules. According to John S. Watterson’s 1988 article, these included “seven men on the line of scrimmage, no pushing or pulling, no interlocking interference, and four fifteen-minute quarters,” along with reintroducing the forward pass in a limited capacity.
After these rules were adopted, Watterson noted that “football transformed into the ‘attractive’ game Wilson envisioned, becoming far less violent than the chaotic spectacle Roosevelt had sought to regulate.”
Myth: Theodore Roosevelt’s final bid for the presidency was in the 1912 election.
Although Roosevelt lost the 1912 election, the Progressive Party didn’t disappear entirely. His running mate, California governor Hiram Johnson, ran for reelection in 1914 as a Progressive and secured more votes than both the Democratic and Republican candidates combined. In April 1916, John Parker, a Progressive candidate for Louisiana governor, aimed to strengthen Roosevelt’s influence ahead of the Republican convention, as reported by the Shreveport Times. Despite losing, Parker still garnered 37 percent of the vote—a significant improvement over the Republican candidate’s 8.78 percent in 1912. His performance made him a strong contender for the Progressive Vice Presidential nomination in 1916.
But who would lead the ticket?
Simultaneously, the Republican convention was underway nearby, but the atmosphere was starkly different. A contemporary account described the Progressive convention as “effervescent and lively,” while the Republicans were divided between Charles Hughes, whom they reluctantly considered, and Roosevelt, whom they outright rejected. The Progressives, however, were unwavering in their support for Roosevelt.
To prevent a repeat of 1912, the Republicans and Progressives engaged in negotiations to find a compromise candidate. Historian Edmund Morris noted that the Progressives were willing to sacrifice much of their platform for Roosevelt’s nomination, but the Republicans firmly opposed him. After the first ballot, Hughes led but lacked a majority. Realizing his chances were slim, Roosevelt proposed Henry Cabot Lodge as a compromise, but the Republicans ultimately chose Hughes. Meanwhile, the Progressives nominated Roosevelt once again.
The main issue was that Roosevelt appeared reluctant to accept the nomination. “I deeply appreciate the honor of being nominated as president,” he wrote to the Progressive convention. “However, I cannot accept it at this time, as I am unaware of the Republican candidate’s stance on critical issues.” Roosevelt proposed a compromise: the Progressive National Committee could delay their decision, evaluate the Republican candidate’s positions, and revisit his refusal if unsatisfied.
Two weeks later, the Progressive National Committee voted 32-6, with nine abstentions, to endorse the Republican candidate. The New York Times proclaimed, “The Progressive Party, as an independent political entity, ceased to exist tonight.”
However, the story didn’t end there. Vice Presidential candidate John Parker continued his campaign—primarily against Hughes, indirectly aiding Wilson. Parker clarified, “I will oppose Mr. Hughes, which naturally benefits Mr. Wilson, but I am speaking as a Progressive, not as a direct supporter of the Democratic nominee.”
In the election, the Progressive Party secured 33,399 votes, a drastic decline from over 4 million in 1912.
As Wilson’s victory became evident before the election, one of Roosevelt’s friends remarked, “We can look ahead to 1920. Roosevelt will be unstoppable then.” Roosevelt responded, “You’re mistaken ... 1916 was my moment. In four years, I’ll be out of the picture.”
Roosevelt passed away unexpectedly in 1919, but the Roosevelt legacy endured. In 1920, Republican Warren G. Harding overwhelmed James M. Cox and his vice-presidential candidate—Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
