Unlike modern presidents, Theodore Roosevelt does not have a physical presidential library that houses his personal and presidential papers. Such materials are in various locations around the country. However, a staff of historians, librarians, educators and administrators at The Theodore Roosevelt Center, based at Dickinson State University in North Dakota, are creating a comprehensive digital archive of these materials. The Theodore Roosevelt Digital Collection was unveiled on December 8.
The digital library will include correspondence to and from Roosevelt, diary entries, notes, political cartoons, scrapbooks, newspaper columns and magazine articles by and about Roosevelt, speeches, and photographs. Users can also view film clips and listen to audio recordings.
The largest collections that the Center is drawing from, for scanning, are the Harvard College Library and the Library of Congress. But there will also be records of materials from multiple historic sites, a national park, and the Theodore Roosevelt Center's materials, from their own Theodore Roosevelt Centeniall Symposium that featured speakers from all over the country.
The Center also hosts an annual Theodore Roosevelt Symposium as well as special Roosevelt-related events, promotes Roosevelt scholarship, and offers student internships. The goal of the new Theodore Roosevelt Digital Collection is to make his legacy more readily accessible to scholars and schoolchildren, enthusiasts and interested citizens.
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