Edith Roosevelt: Courtship, Marriage and Sagamore Hill

Union Square and Childhood Connection

Edith Carow grew up a short walk from the Roosevelts, near Union Square. She was nearly three years younger than Theodore, and his sister Corinne was her closest friend. She was his playmate, tutored with the Roosevelt children and a guest on their Oyster Bay summers. The two were close as teenagers, and wrote to each other, before a falling-out. At Harvard, Theodore fell in love with Alice Hathaway Lee. (Edith's childhood with the Roosevelts, in Theodore's own diary entries, is on Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt.)

Currier & Ives print of President Lincoln's funeral procession passing Union Square, New York, in 1865.

President Lincoln's funeral procession passes Union Square, New York, April 25, 1865, in the neighborhood where Edith Carow and the Roosevelt children grew up. (Currier & Ives / Library of Congress)

Theodore Roosevelt in fringed buckskin, seated with a rifle, in 1885.

Theodore Roosevelt in 1885, the year he and Edith Carow met again. (Library of Congress)

The Secret Courtship and Reunion

After Alice Lee's death in 1884, Bamie cared for baby Alice while Theodore was in Dakota. Back in New York, he re-entered politics. Edith was now in her mid-twenties. They met again by chance at Bamie's house in the autumn of 1885, and on November 17, 1885, they became secretly engaged.

Months before the wedding, in June 1886, Edith wrote to Theodore from abroad:

"You know I love you very much and would do anything in the world to please you. I wish I could be sure my letters sound as much like myself as yours do like you; or that they are what you like. You know all about me darling. I never could have loved anyone else."

— Edith Kermit Carow to Theodore Roosevelt, June 1886

Theodore wanted the engagement kept quiet, and was furious when it leaked into the papers in September 1886. Writing from the Elkhorn Ranch in the Badlands, he told his sister:

"I am engaged to Edith and before Christmas I shall cross the ocean and marry her."

— Letter to his sister Anna Roosevelt, written from the Elkhorn Ranch, September 20, 1886 · Theodore Roosevelt Center

The London Wedding: December 2, 1886

On December 2, 1886, Theodore Roosevelt married Edith Kermit Carow at St. George's Church, Hanover Square, London. It was a private wedding, by design. A handful of guests saw them married, with the British diplomat Cecil Spring Rice as best man. There was no elaborate reception. The night Theodore sailed for England, notes went out announcing the engagement and the coming wedding.

Theodore's first wedding, to Alice Lee, had been a conventional society wedding in Brookline on October 27, 1880. This one was quiet, far from New York. It began a partnership that lasted 32 years.

Edith Roosevelt seated on a garden bench holding a parasol.

Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, in an undated glass-plate portrait. (Library of Congress)

Born to Manage: Edith's Gifts and Character

Edith was born on August 6, 1861, just eight days after Alice Lee, who was born on July 29 of the same year. She was capable, and could stand up to Theodore. She managed the family finances and ran the household through his political rise. What she did with those gifts as First Lady is told on Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt.

Three-quarter portrait of Edith Roosevelt wearing a large hat

Edith Roosevelt's official portrait by Théobald Chartran (1902), photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston. She was admired for the organization and calm she brought to a busy household and to public life. (Library of Congress)

Edith Roosevelt in profile, seated in a carved chair, reading

Edith Roosevelt reading, 1902. She was the steady anchor for six children, including her stepdaughter Alice. (Schloss / Library of Congress)

Stepmother, Mother, and Anchor

When Theodore and Edith married, little Alice was not yet three and had been raised largely by Bamie. She joined the new household, and her relationship with Edith was often complicated. Edith and Theodore had five children of their own: Theodore Jr., Kermit, Ethel, Archibald and Quentin. She raised them with the same physical vigor and moral seriousness Theodore had known growing up.

The Household at Sagamore Hill

Marriage brought a new home: Sagamore Hill, a rambling Queen Anne house of more than 20 rooms in Oyster Bay, Long Island, on land Theodore bought in 1880 (155 acres, of which he kept about 95). It had been designed for Alice Lee and first named Leeholm. It became Edith's domain, and later the "Summer White House."

The Roosevelt family posed together outdoors at Oyster Bay

Theodore and Edith Roosevelt with their six children, July 1903. (Pach Brothers / Library of Congress)

Edith Roosevelt seated at her desk in the White House.

Edith Roosevelt at her desk in the White House, about 1903. As First Lady she ran the mansion's staff and social calendar. (Library of Congress)

The Presidential Years and Beyond

When Theodore became President in 1901, he and Edith had been married nearly fifteen years. Her years as First Lady, and her long widowhood, are told on Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt.

Without her, his rise might still have been possible, but it would not have been the same.

Continue Reading

Primary Sources at the TR Center

The Theodore Roosevelt Center's digital library contains materials related to Edith Roosevelt and the Roosevelt family.

From the Archives

Explore original photographs, documents, and illustrations related to this topic in the Theodore Roosevelt Center Digital Library.

Recommended Reading

  • Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (1979). ISBN 978-0-375-75678-8 (Modern Library paperback)
  • Nathan Miller, Theodore Roosevelt: A Life (William Morrow, 1992). ISBN 978-0-688-06784-7
  • Lewis L. Gould, Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Creating the Modern First Lady (University Press of Kansas, 2013). ISBN 978-0-7006-1902-3
  • Sylvia Jukes Morris, Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1980). ISBN 978-0-698-10994-0