Timeline of T.R.’s Valentine’s Days
Follow Theodore Roosevelt through his Valentine’s Days, from a boyhood visit to the Vatican to the day in 1884 his wife and his mother died, and on to 1918. Read the full story at Valentine’s Day in Theodore Roosevelt’s Life.
THE VATICAN AT ELEVEN
On the family's tour of Europe, 11-year-old T.R. wrote in his diary in Rome: "We all went to the Vatican to see the pictures."
ON THE NILE
On the family's Nile voyage, at Memphis, Egypt, the 14-year-old's diary entry reads: "Sailed all day. Rough in afternoon."
SHE SAYS YES
After courting her for more than a year, T.R. drove over to the Lees' and Alice Hathaway Lee agreed to marry him. "I am so happy that I dare not trust in my own happiness," he wrote in his diary.
CHAMPAGNE FOR THE CLUB
On Valentine's Day, T.R. made the news public. "Drove back to Cambridge in the morning, announced my engagement to the Club, and 'set up' champagne," his diary records. That evening he went to a leap year party.
A DAUGHTER IS BORN
At his mother's house at 6 West 57th Street in New York, Alice gave birth to a daughter. The New-York Tribune reported that T.R. was called home from the Assembly in Albany the next day.
HIS MOTHER DIES
Martha "Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt died of typhoid fever at about 3 a.m.
"THE LIGHT HAS GONE OUT OF MY LIFE"
At about 2 p.m., in the same house, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt died, two days after their daughter's birth. She was 22. On that day's page of his diary T.R. drew a large X and wrote: "The light has gone out of my life".
A RALLY AT COOPER UNION
That evening, about 2,000 people met at Cooper Union in Manhattan to back "the Roosevelt bill," his measure to take from the Board of Aldermen the power to confirm the mayor's appointments. The Tribune's account does not place T.R. there.
THE ASSEMBLY MOURNS
In Albany, former Speaker Husted offered a resolution of the Assembly's regret, and members made "a series of sympathetic speeches," the Tribune reported (Feb. 16). T.R.'s committee investigating New York City departments had already called off its sessions for the week.
BURIED TOGETHER
After a double funeral at Dr. John Hall's Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, Mittie and Alice were buried together at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
BABY ALICE IS CHRISTENED
T.R. christened his daughter Alice Lee Roosevelt and finished a two-page diary tribute to his wife: "For joy or for sorrow my life has now been lived out".
TO THE LITTLE MISSOURI
Four months later, his diary records: "Arrived at my cattle ranche ('Chimney Butte Ranche') on the Little Missouri".
A NEW DEPARTMENT
President Roosevelt signed the act creating the Department of Commerce and Labor.
THE HUNGARIAN CLUB DINNER
In New York City, T.R. spoke on citizenship at the Hungarian Club dinner, opening: "It is a peculiar pleasure to me to be with you this evening".
CUPID AT THE WHITE HOUSE
At the White House, T.R. spoke to students of the Manassas Industrial School of Virginia about "the fundamental duty of American citizenship—the duty of self-education." Puck's cover that day, "Cupid at the White House," looked ahead to his daughter Alice's wedding to Nicholas Longworth at the White House on February 17.
ON THE MARCH IN BRAZIL
On the Roosevelt-Rondon expedition, T.R.'s party was one day short of Campos Novos, which Through the Brazilian Wilderness records they reached on the afternoon of February 15.
FROM A HOSPITAL BED
Ill in a New York hospital, T.R. saw his nephew W. Sheffield Cowles Jr., who was on his way to join the Marine Corps, according to the family's edition of his letters to his sister Anna.
From the Archives
Letters, cards and papers about Valentine’s Day from the Theodore Roosevelt Center’s digital library.