The Goldbug

Frederic Remington, born in New York State, was a painter, illustrator and sculptor who painted scenes of the Old American West.  Remington studied art at Yale University but was forced to quit to care for his father, stricken with tuberculosis.  At 19, he made his first trip out West to Montana where he saw the "quickly shrinking buffalo herds, the still unfenced cattle and the last major confrontations between U.S. Calvary and Native American tribes".  Remington tried his hand at sheep ranching in Kansas, but missed the finer things of life back East.

A Dash for the Timber circa 1889 courtesy http://hoocher.com/Frederic_Remington/Frederic_Remington.htm.

With financial support from his uncle, Remington was able to pursue art fulltime.  His first commercial success was a front page illustration on the cover of Harper's Weekly in 1886.  The same year, the magazine sent him to Arizona on assignment to track down Geronimo.  While Remington didn't find the Apache chief, he did take many photographs and draw many sketches valuable for later paintings.

Harpers Weekly 1886 courtesy https://www.pinterest.com/pin/158892693079969106/.

Remington had a big break when he was commissioned by Theodore Roosevelt to complete 83 illustrations for his book Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail (1888), which was serialized by The Century Magazine.  A full colour oil painting called Return of the Blackfoot Party, exhibited at the National Academy of Design, was so well received that the New York Herald said that "one day Remington would be listed among our great American painters".

http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/ranch-life-and-the-hunting-trail/first-edition/

Remington seemed to have a knack of being at the right place at the right time.  In 1890, he arrived in South Dakota, shortly after the Massacre at Wounded Knee, a tragedy where 150 Sioux, mainly women and children, were murdered.  His 1898 painting The Parley, based on this massacre, has a realist quality.

http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=14117

Remington was also there when the Spanish-American War broke out, acting as an official war correspondent.  When Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders returned from the battlefield, Remington presented him with the gift of a sculpture, The Bronco Buster, a piece which launched the genre of cowboy sculptures.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Remington

Remington documented the Western mining prospectors, naming his painting The Goldbug, perhaps because of the "gold fever" that prospectors were afflicted with.  The painting was featured on a U.S. Stamp in 1898.

http://www.theswedishtiger.com/291-scotts.html

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

"Between them Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt for nineteen of the first forty-five years of the twentieth century, years during which much of the modern world -- and the modern state -- was created." (Ken Burns)

No other American family has touched more lives than the Roosevelt's.  Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt shared a common love for politics and people.  They shared a common courage in the face of fear and perseverance in the face of adversity.  They also shared a common relative, Eleanor Roosevelt.

Ken Burns series The Roosevelts:  An Intimate History courtesy http://www.weta.org/tv/program/roosevelts-intimate-history.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, had his finger on the pulse of America.  He was a Populist, concerned about the farmers, about grassroots America.  He was also concerned about nature, making a pilgrimage to Yellowstone, the first of America's National Parks.  Theodore Roosevelt was fearless.  While delivering a political speech on one occasion, an assassin shot him. The bullet lodged within a quarter inch of his heart.  However, Theodore insisted on delivering the speech, which lasted a full hour.  Only then did he let his attendants take him to the hospital.

Speed reader Theodore Roosevelt used to read a book a day courtesy

http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/president-theodore-roosevelts-1903-visit-wyoming.

Theodore's fifth cousin, Franklin Roosevelt, became the 32nd President of the United States.  While Theodore was a Republican, Franklin was a Democrat.  The two shared much in common.  Both were fearless.  After contracting polio at Campobello Island at the age of 39, Franklin insisted on learning how to "walk" again using braces and crutches.  Suffering immense pain, he would practise standing so he could deliver a speech, determined to make a political comeback.  Franklin campaigned in every county of New York State in his bid for governor.  Later he ran an extensive presidential campaign.  No stranger to pain and suffering, it was Franklin who led the nation through the Great Depression, building moral through his fireside radio chats.  It was Franklin who delivered the famous "Today will live in infamy speech" after the Pearl Harbor attack. 

A young FDR courtesy 

 http://www.pbs.org/show/roosevelts/.

Franklin married Eleanor Roosevelt, Theodore's niece.  The couple raised five children.  Eleanor, always supportive of her husband's political career, helped him campaign.  More than any other First Lady, she worked diligently to promote her husband's career.  Eleanor wrote a column in a daily newspaper.  She promoted childhood literacy.  She furthered the cause of Black Americans.  And long after her husband passed away, Eleanor was still working.

Eleanor Roosevelt courtesy https://prezi.com/aslc1oru9fmw/eleanor-roosevelt/. 

Theodore Roosevelt Devoured Books Like a Hungry Lion

"Theodore Roosevelt devoured books like a hungry lion feasting on a fresh kill." (Brett McKay)

While Theodore Roosevelt was known as a hunter, as a rough rider, as a statesman and as the man for whom the Teddy Bear is named, he is not known for his intellect.  Yet the 26th President, with an IQ of 149, was one of the most well read presidents.  It is estimated he read tens of thousands of books in his lifetime.

As a child, Theodore suffered from vicious asthma attacks.  While he recuperated in bed, he would read voraciously.  "He devoured books like a hungry lion feasting on a fresh kill."  At an early age, he developped a lifelong passion for knowledge.  (http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/10/18/how-to-speed-read-like-theodore-roosevelt/)  

Once in the White House, Theodore Roosevelt liked to read a book every morning before breakfast.  He went about his presidential duties during the day.  In the evening, he would read two or three more books.  Not only did he read the books, but he could recall minutes details about what he read. Three factors worked to Theodore's advantage:  firstly, he had a photographic memory; secondly, he knew how to speed read; thirdly, he had keen concentration powers.  As one biographer wrote, "his occupation for the moment was to the exclusion of everything else; if he were reading, the house might fall about his head, he could not be diverted." (http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/02/03/the-libraries-of-great-men-theodore-roosevelts-reading-list/)

Theodore's love of reading not only helped him to acquire knowledge, but also helped him to connect with others, a skill which came in handy as a politician.  "Whether the subject of the moment was political economy, Greek drama, tropical fauna or flora, the Irish sagas, protective coloration in nature, metaphysics, the technique of football, or post futuristic painting, he was equally at home with the experts and drew out the best that was in them." (http://teachingamericanhistory.org/past-programs/hfotw/120624-2/)

The avid reader became an avid writer, penning more than 35 books in his lifetime, including The Naval War of 1812, helping to establish him as an historian.  

For a list of books that Theodore Roosevelt read, some more than once, visit: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/02/03/the-libraries-of-great-men-theodore-roosevelts-reading-list/.

http://teachingamericanhistory.org/past-programs/hfotw/120624-2/

The Camping Trip That Changed America

"I wish to write you personally to express the hope that you will be able to take me through the Yosemite." (President Theodore Roosevelt's letter to John Muir, 1903)

Theodore Roosevelt & John Muir at Glacier Point circa 1903 courtesy http://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/muir-influences.htm.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt sat down in his overstuffed chair and read conservationist John Muir's book about his adventures in the Sierra Mountains.  Muir complained about how America's "wild forests were vanishing".  Roosevelt took out a pen and paper and wrote a letter to Muir, asking if he would accompany him on a tour of Yosemite in California to see the problem firsthand (http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/trenvpics/trmuirletters.pdf).

The rich New Yorker, Roosevelt, and the poor immigrant farmer, Muir, were opposites.  But Roosevelt took great delight in their adventure, exclaiming that he felt like "a runaway schoolboy". The president was treated to the sight of Mariposa Grove's towering sequoias and Glacier Point's Overhanging Rock.  Roosevelt was alarmed by the plethora of fallen sequoias and the pollution spewing into the air.

The Yosemite trip was burned into Roosevelt's memory.  Not long after, in 1906, he signed the Antiquities Act to protect the national natural treasures.  Today, almost 85 million acres of land are located within America's national parks.

For more information, read The Camping Trip That Changed America at http://www.amazon.ca/Camping-Trip-that-Changed-America/dp/0803737106.

Roosevelt, Muir and company in front of a giant sequoia courtesy 

http://muir-way.com/blogs/news/38343365-john-muir-and-the-sierra-club.