President Theodore Roosevelt

President Theodore Roosevelt

By Tom Kirvan

A larger-than-life political figure, Theodore Roosevelt is one of four U.S. presidents to be immortalized on Mount Rushmore, the massive sculpture carved in the Black Hills region of South Dakota under the direction of Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln.

Born on October 27, 1858 to a wealthy New York family, Roosevelt became the nation’s 26th president in the wake of a national tragedy when President William McKinley died from wounds suffered in an assassination attack in September 1901.

When he assumed the presidency after spending less than a year as vice president, Roosevelt quickly transformed the executive branch into the center of American politics. In short order, Roosevelt began a sweeping preservation of public lands, using his executive power to establish five National Parks, 150 National Forests, 18 National Monuments, and 51 Federal Bird Reservations. In total, he placed nearly 230 million acres – roughly 10 percent of the United States – under federal protection, and also signed the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allowed officials to safeguard culturally and environmentally significant sites.

“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground,” Roosevelt said of his political and personal philosophy.

President Theodore Roosevelt*

As president, the former governor of New York also expanded America’s geopolitical influence, famously adhering to the proverb: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

One of his greatest achievements was initiating the construction of the Panama Canal, a project that would dramatically enhance global shipping and naval mobility. In 1906, during his second term in office, he became the first American to win the Nobel Peace Prize for successfully negotiating peace in the Russo-Japanese War.

“Knowing what’s right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right,” Roosevelt proclaimed. “To educate a person in the mind but not in the morals is to educate a menace to society.”

On the domestic front, Roosevelt was known as the “trust buster” for his work to end large corporate monopolies and to ensure the rights of the common working man by creating the Department of Commerce and Labor to investigate corporate practices.

When he died in 1919 of a coronary embolism at the age of 60, Roosevelt was remembered for one of his more prophetic quotes: “When you’re at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.”

^{*Restored by Adam Cuerden;}^{Library of Congress}^'s^{Prints and Photographs division}^{digital ID}^ppmsca.35645^{; 1904 headshot photograph of Theodore Roosevelt; retrieved October 5, 2026 from}^{Wiki Commons}