Theodore Roosevelt's Executive Orders and Proclamations
Between September 14, 1901, and March 4, 1909, Theodore Roosevelt signed 1,521 executive orders and proclamations. Some were a single line excusing a clerk from a civil-service exam. Others made Devils Tower the first national monument, turned Pelican Island into the first federal bird reservation, set aside the Grand Canyon and ran the Panama Canal Zone. In the forty-eight hours before a new law took the power away in six Western states, he signed thirty-three proclamations creating and enlarging forest reserves across about 15.6 million acres.
Every one of them is here: what each order did, its text where one survives, who countersigned it and the story around it. For more than 500, there is also what happened next: how people reacted, what changed, and which of today's national parks, forests and wildlife refuges began with Roosevelt's signature.
Key Facts
| Documents | 1,521 |
|---|---|
| Executive orders | 1,111 (1,006 numbered, 105 unnumbered) |
| Proclamations | 410 |
| Span | Sept. 14, 1901 – Mar. 4, 1909 |
| Places today | 185 parks, forests, refuges and more |
| Stories | 114 |
Go deeper
The stories behind the orders
114 short histories, from Pelican Island to the Panama Canal Zone, each linked to the orders it covers.
Then and now
The national parks, forests and wildlife refuges that began with a Roosevelt order, and what became of the rest.
The open dataset
Every record as JSON and CSV, free to use, with an API and embeddable widgets.
Landmark actions
The orders and proclamations that did the most to change the map or the government, in the order Roosevelt signed them.
Search every order and proclamation
Filter by year, subject or state, or search for a place, a name or a number such as “EO 1003.” Each result opens its own page with the full record.
Where this comes from
The list draws on the United States Statutes at Large, the American Presidency Project at UC Santa Barbara, the official executive-order numbering, Clifford L. Lord's 1943 list of unnumbered orders and volunteer transcriptions on Wikisource. The Library's researchers checked each group of documents against those sources and corrected dozens of dates and titles along the way; every correction is noted on the document's own page.
Texts marked “not yet checked” are machine readings or transcriptions, so open the printed page before quoting one. The full dataset is free to use. Spot something off? Write to hello@trlibrary.com.
Keep exploring
- Executive Power: The Stewardship Theory, Roosevelt's case for a president who acts unless the law forbids it
- Conservation, the presidency's biggest use of the pen
- Theodore Roosevelt's Presidency