Timeline of T.R.'s Thanksgivings
Follow Theodore Roosevelt through four decades of Thanksgivings, from dinners with Alice Lee’s family to the White House and a hospital bed in 1918. Read the full story at Thanksgiving with Theodore Roosevelt.
The Early Years
November 29, 1877
HOME FROM HARVARD
"Went on to New York for Thanksgiving," the Harvard sophomore wrote in his diary the day before the holiday. It was his last Thanksgiving with his father, who died the following February.
November 28, 1878
THANKSGIVING WITH ALICE LEE
Weeks after meeting Alice Lee, T.R. spent the day with Alice and her cousin Rose Saltonstall, "dancing, walking, playing lawn tennis &c." His diary called Alice "one of the sweetest, most ladylike girls I have ever met."
November 27, 1879
DINNER AT THE LEES'
After a drive and an afternoon of skating, T.R. joined the Lee family for Thanksgiving dinner in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. "Afterwards we had great fun," his diary says, "playing games, dancing & acting charades."
November 25, 1880
THE NEWSBOYS' DINNER
A month after marrying Alice, T.R. and his cousin Emlen gave Thanksgiving dinner to about a hundred newsboys, carrying on his late father's custom. That evening the family dined together. "Alice looked like a little Queen," he wrote.
November 24, 1881
THANKSGIVING IN BOSTON
Two weeks after his election to the New York State Assembly, T.R. and Alice spent Thanksgiving with her mother in Boston, his diary records.
November 27, 1884
"RODE HOME"
At his ranches on the Little Missouri River, T.R. spent the week hunting and riding; on Tuesday he rode out with Bill Sewall. His diary entry for Thanksgiving Day reads, in full: "Rode home." It was his first Thanksgiving since the deaths of his mother and his wife that February.
November 25, 1886
ABROAD, ONE WEEK BEFORE HIS WEDDING
T.R. had sailed for England on November 6 with his sister. One week after Thanksgiving, on December 2, he married Edith Kermit Carow in London.
November 24, 1898
GOVERNOR-ELECT AT OYSTER BAY
Sixteen days after his election as Governor of New York, Colonel Roosevelt arrived home at Oyster Bay "in time to eat his Thanksgiving dinner," a New York paper reported.
1900 and After
A GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION
As Governor, T.R. set apart Thanksgiving "in accordance with the wise custom of our forefathers." Now Vice President-elect, he ate Thanksgiving turkey at Oyster Bay with family and a few friends.
THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL THANKSGIVING
T.R.'s first proclamation mourned President McKinley. On the day itself he took a long walk outside Washington with Secretary of War Elihu Root, while Archie and Kermit walked on stilts on the icy White House grounds.
A RIDE AND A VIRGINIA REEL
The family and friends took what T.R. called "a three hours' scamper" on horseback. After dinner in the new State Dining Room, "we cleared away the table and danced," he wrote to Kermit.
A QUIET THANKSGIVING
In mourning for T.R.'s uncle James K. Gracie, the family held no social events. That night they left for New York for the funeral.
A FENCE JUMP AND THE WORLD'S FAIR
Two weeks after winning a full term, T.R. strained a leg jumping a fence on his horse Rusty, a few days after first straining it boxing with Ted and the boys. That night he left for St. Louis, where he saw "the North Dakota Exhibit, with my old cabin."
OFF TO PINE KNOT
The Roosevelts spent Thanksgiving at Pine Knot, Edith's cabin in Albemarle County, Virginia.
HOME FROM PANAMA
T.R. returned from Panama, the first trip abroad by a sitting President, three days before Thanksgiving. The family ate a 28-pound Rhode Island turkey at the White House.
A PILGRIMAGE TO MONTPELIER
T.R. took a special train to Montpelier, James Madison's home in Virginia, and laid flowers on Madison's tomb. Dinner back at the White House featured opossum and turkey.
A CORNERSTONE ON THANKSGIVING DAY
On his last Thanksgiving as President, T.R. rode through Rock Creek Park, then laid the cornerstone of Washington's Twelfth Street YMCA, shaking hands with Levi Adams, the Black mason setting the stone, and spreading the first trowel of mortar himself.
ON SAFARI
T.R. spent late November hunting on the Uasin Gishu plateau in British East Africa with his African expedition. The same day, Edith and Ethel landed in New York from Europe.
A GIFT FOR THE MAN WHO STOPPED THE GUNMAN
After his defeat as the Progressive candidate, T.R. sent a gold watch as a Thanksgiving gift to Elbert Martin, the stenographer and former private secretary who grabbed the gunman in Milwaukee.
IN CHILE
On a speaking tour of South America, T.R. was in Chile. Edith had started for home from Santiago the day before, while T.R. went to the coast at Valparaíso. The tour led to his descent of the River of Doubt.
IN THE HOSPITAL
Admitted to Roosevelt Hospital in New York on Armistice Day, T.R. spent his last Thanksgiving there. Ten days earlier, newspapers had printed his request that his son Quentin, killed in France in July, stay where he was buried. The War Department agreed.
From the Archives
Letters, cartoons and proclamations about T.R.’s Thanksgivings from the Theodore Roosevelt Center.