Theodore Roosevelt's Early Life
A Sickly Boy in a Gilded House. A Will That Would Not Rest.
Overcoming Childhood Asthma
He came into the world healthy on October 27, 1858. Then asthma struck with sudden, unpredictable fury — and the doctors of the era had almost nothing to offer. What the frail boy did next became the defining story of his life.
Building a Museum in His Bedroom
Before the boxing lessons and the gymnasium, there was the grandly named “Roosevelt Museum of Natural History” — a boy’s collection of specimens that spilled from his bedroom through the townhouse at 28 East 20th Street.
The Man Who Shaped a President
He was not famous in his lifetime, and he is largely forgotten now, overshadowed by his brilliant son. Yet the merchant and philanthropist who helped found the American Museum of Natural History set the standard Theodore measured himself against for the rest of his life.
Key Facts
| Born | October 27, 1858, at 28 East 20th Street, Manhattan |
|---|---|
| Parents | Theodore Roosevelt Sr. and Martha “Mittie” Bulloch Roosevelt |
| Siblings | Anna “Bamie,” Elliott, and Corinne |
| Childhood nickname | “Teedie” |
| Childhood struggle | Severe asthma, from early childhood |
| Bedroom museum | The “Roosevelt Museum of Natural History,” begun in boyhood |
| Taxidermy teacher | The renowned naturalist John G. Bell |
| Witnessed at age six | Lincoln’s funeral procession, 1865, from the Roosevelt mansion at Union Square |
| Travels abroad | Grand tour of Europe, 1869; Egypt and a voyage up the Nile, 1872–73 |
| College preparation | The demanding tutor Arthur Hamilton Cutler |
| Harvard | 1876–1880; graduated magna cum laude at twenty-two |
| Father’s death | February 1878, during Theodore’s sophomore year |
| Married | Alice Hathaway Lee, October 27, 1880 — his twenty-second birthday |
The Southern Belle in New York
A celebrated Georgia beauty brought grace, romance, and a touch of the Old South into the Roosevelt household on East 20th Street.
Bamie, Elliott, and Corinne
An older sister who became the most trusted confidant of his life, a charming younger brother headed for tragedy, and a younger sister with a poet’s heart — family at its best and worst.
The Roosevelts and the Civil War
Theodore Sr. stood with the Union. Mittie reportedly packed supplies for Confederate soldiers, and her half-brother ran the South’s naval operations in Europe. The contradiction lived in the family parlor.
From New Amsterdam to East 20th Street
The story begins with a Dutch immigrant named Claes in New Amsterdam. Over the next two centuries, generation after generation wove the family into the fabric of New York.
The Making of a Historian and Political Thinker
He arrived in the autumn of 1876, seventeen years old, rigorously prepared and nervously energetic, into a college in intellectual ferment. He left with the mind of a historian — and a fiancée.
Travels That Made a Cosmopolitan
A grand tour of Europe at age ten, then Egypt and a voyage up the Nile as a teenager. The boy who collected birds came home carrying the wider world.
Inside the Life of an Extraordinary Boy
It is 1870, and eleven-year-old Theodore wakes in pre-dawn darkness at 28 East 20th Street. He does not linger in bed. Lingering, he has decided, is for people who accept their limitations.
The Essentials, Quickly
Born at 7:45 p.m. on October 27, 1858; nearly lost to asthma; a bedroom museum builder, taxidermy student, and Nile traveler. Ten facts that map the road to Harvard and beyond.