One thing that chance when you make a Theodore Roosevelt - theme podcast is that whenever there ’s TR - related tidings , you get atonof messages about it . Which is precisely what happened to me whennews brokethat the American Museum of Natural History had asked for the equestrian statue of TR that stands outside its Central Park West entrance to be removed .
The request comes at a meter when hundreds of one thousand of people are pick out to the streets to protest police brutality and systemic racism . statue of historical figures , including those of theConfederacyand monuments dedicate to frame who owned or sold enslaved people , are being defaced , removed , or pull down only — and not just here in the States , but all around the world as well .
Although the museum’srequestto get rid of the statue — which boast TR on horseback , flanked on the footing by one Native American and one African anatomy — was made in lighter of the current movement , this special statue of TR has been controversial for a very foresighted time . In 1971 , activists dump a can of cerise paint on Roosevelt ’s head in what a paper at that meter called “ the latest incident against the Roosevelt statue . ” In 1987 , former New York City parking area commissionerGordon Davissaidhe would bear out the statue being blast away from where it stood—“unless , ” he noted , “ Roosevelt get off and walk with them . ”Beginningin 2016 , militant have protested the statue by organizing marches , covering it with aparachute , and splashing red blusher on the base .
Removing the statue was considered as recently as 2017 . The Mayoral Advisory Commission on City Art , Monuments , and Markers — which was , according to a report issued in January 2018 [ PDF ] , “ commit to a process of historic count , a nuanced understanding of the complicated histories we have inherited”—was divide about what to do with the statue .
finally , the city decided to keep the statue where it was , and asked the museum to supply context to the work — which the museum did in its showing “ Addressing the Statue . ” We touched briefly on the statue and on the exhibit in a larger word of Roosevelt ’s views on slipstream in the sequence “ History Vs . TR . ”
Why was the metropolis involved in the conclusion , you ask ? Because even though many associate the statue directly with the museum thanks to its location , Roosevelt ’s own history with the innovation , and things like theNight at the Museummovies , it ’s really part of a public memorial to Roosevelt located on public land .
While some have issue with the statue because of Roosevelt himself , the museum has said that its petition to move it is n’t about Roosevelt but rather because of the statue ’s composition and what it implies .
So , in this fillip episode ofHistory Vs . , we ’re survive to let the cat out of the bag about the statue — why it ’s there , what the artist mean , and why it ’s viewed as controversial today . And we ’ll plunge into Roosevelt ’s own perspective on bequest .
The statue ’s news report begin in 1920 , when the New York State Legislature set up the Roosevelt Memorial Commission . Nine years later , construction began on amemorialwithin the museum that , according tothe prospectus of the rival , should “ express Roosevelt ’s animation as a nature fan , natural scientist , explorer , and writer of works of natural story . ”
The memorial may have finish up at AMNH because of Henry Fairfield Osborn , who was then both chairwoman of the museum and the head of the New York State Roosevelt Memorial Commission . Osborn had also known Roosevelt — who contributed specimens to the museum , and whose father was one of the establish members — in person .
The memorial wasdesignedby architect John Russell Pope and included the museum ’s Central Park West entryway , its Theodore Roosevelt rotunda , and the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall . In 1925 , theEquestrian Statue of Theodore Rooseveltwascommissionedto become a part of that gravid memorial .
In 1928 , Pope wrote that the statue would sit on a granite pedestal “ expect an equestrian statue of Roosevelt with two accompanying figure on foot , one act the American Indian and the other the primitive African . This heroic chemical group … will symbolise the intrepid leaders , the Internet Explorer , benefactor and educator . ”
Sculptor James Earle Fraser — who had created , among other things , a bust of Roosevelt , a statue of Ben Franklin , and theBuffalo nickel — was chosen to make the sculpture , which was based on a statue by Andrea del Verrocchio .
The statue was completed in 1939 and bring out in 1940 . Fraser said that the anatomy beside the former chair “ are guidebook symbolizing the Continent of Africa and America , and if you choose may resist for Roosevelt ’s friendliness to all races . ” The trope have no names , and are below , and trail behind , Roosevelt .
So , we ’ve talked about what the artists intended when they make the statue . Now , let ’s speak about how the statue is viewed today .
Because a livid military man is ahead of and above an autochthonic American soul and an African person , many see a clear ikon of racial hierarchy and lily-white supremacy . Others see a monument to colonialism and conquest .
Not only that , but the unnamed figures seem to be ahodgepodgeof stereotypes and poor research . The Native American figure come out to be a Plains Indian , but it ’s a generic and stereotypical rendering . fit in to the museum ’s exhibit about the statue , the shield on the African image looks like based on the Maasai multitude , whom Roosevelt met during his time in East Africa . But the museum explicate that “ the hairstyle and facial scarification on the fig do not accurately chew over Maasai traditions , ” and the fabric draped around the body is more akin to a Grecian or Roman carving .
In 1999 , James Loewenwrotein his bookLies Across America : WhatOurHistoric Sites Get Wrongthat “ some authority claim the flank trope are ‘ template ’ or ‘ continents , ’ but visitor without such precognition internalise the memorial without even remember about it , as a annunciation of white mastery . When the statue proceed up the museum was openly antiblack . ”
At that time , the museum had strong tie-in to eugenics . Under Osborn ’s term of office , two league about eugenics were carry there . Roosevelt himself also supported sure aspects ofeugenics , especially later in his life .
Now … about TR ’s quote - unquote “ friendliness to all races . ” If you listened to the “ History Vs . TR ” episode of this podcast , you ’ll remember just how complicated and sometimes contradictory TR ’s views on race were . But simply put , TR hold ashen supremacist and antiblack view that were work by his childhood , the Book he register , his education , and his symmetricalness with scientists . Roosevelt developed a theory of the stages of civilization , a racial power structure that put the blank , English - speaking man on top .
consort to historian William S. WalkerinControversial Monuments and Memorials : A Guide for Community Leaders , Fraser ’s statue is fundamentally a visual theatrical of the prevalent mentation about race at the meter — a “ worrying pecking order of human groups that point whites above autochthonous peoples and other masses of color on a general scale of human civilization , ” he writes . “ The statue ’s symbolism corresponds with overtly antiblack statements Roosevelt made in his writings … and actions he shoot , such as his wrongful condemnation and punishment of fatal soldiers after the Brownsville affair in 1906 . Moreover , the racial imagery of Fraser ’s statue matches the rife paternalistic attitudes that many White , including Roosevelt , display toward mass of color in the early twentieth century . ”
We ’ve covered a lot of the honestly atrocious things Roosevelt enjoin about other races in old episodes of the podcast , but right now , I want to face at just a few examples of what he enunciate about mordant people , to show just how at odds his thinking could be .
The first is fromremarkshe made in February 1905 : “ Our exploit should be to secure to each man , whatever his colour , equation of opportunity , equivalence of intervention before the law . As a the great unwashed striving to influence our natural process in accordance of rights with the great law of righteousness we can not afford to take part in or be indifferent to the subjugation or maltreatment of any man who , against crush disadvantage , has by his own industry , energy , self - regard , and perseverance fight up to a side which would entitle him to the respect of his fellows , if only his skin were of a different hue . "
sound pretty good , correct ? But . In 1906 , Rooseveltwrotein a alphabetic character to Owen Wister that Black people “ as a race and as a mass … are altogether subscript to the White River . ”And in 1916 , he wrote to Henry Cabot Lodge , “ I believe that the swell majority of Negroes in the South are totally unfit for the suffrage . ” Extending them that right , he say , could “ reduce parts of the South to the level of Haiti . ”
Historian Thomas Dyer breaks down TR ’s thoughts on a number of races in depth in his book , Theodore Roosevelt and the Idea of Race , and if you require more information than I ’ll ever be able-bodied to birth here , you should definitely pick it up .
Dyer notes that while Roosevelt did n’t stomach separatism or disenfranchisement of Black Americans , and while he championedspecificBlack mortal , like Minnie Cox , there ’s no inquiry that Roosevelt felt that Black people as a whole were inferior to lily-white hoi polloi . And he believe it was the white man ’s caper to help the calamitous human become as civilised as the lily-white man — a cognitive process that he believe would take an passing farseeing time .
However , according to Dyer , Roosevelt should n’t be lumped in with the profoundly antiblack politico of the Deep South , but instead was “ associated with the chemical group of theorizer who advance the vision of racial equipotentiality and with those politico who in public deplored the oppression of American Blacks yet oppose ‘ social par , ’ ” Dyer write . “ Thus , although Roosevelt may have been a moderate force in an age of high racialism , he nevertheless harbor strong feelings about the inferiority of Blacks , feelings which suggest the pervasiveness of racialism and the harsh character of racial ‘ moderation ’ in turn - of - the - 100 America . ”
Though these may have been prevalent views at the time , and while one could try and free Roosevelt ’s racist view by saying that he was a product of his time , there were plenitude of mass at that time , likeJane AddamsandWilliam English Walling , who didnotagree with these vista , who were much more progressive on this particular subject than Roosevelt was .
We ’ll be right back .
Right around the clock time the museum ’s “ Addressing the Statue ” exhibit went up in July 2019 , I spoke with David Hurst Thomas , conservator of North American Archaeology , Division of Anthropology at AMNH . Here ’s what he had to say about the statue and the exhibit :
In the display , the museum grappled with what it called Roosevelt ’s “ troubling views on race ” and its “ own frail story , ” saying that “ Such an travail does not excuse the past tense but it can create a foundation for honorable , respectful , open dialogue . ”
In a late statement , the museum order it was proud of the expo , “ which helped progress our and the public ’s understanding of the statue and its chronicle and promoted dialogue about authoritative issues of slipstream and ethnic representation , but in the current second , it is extravagantly clear that this approach is not sufficient . While the statue is have by the metropolis , the museum recognizes the grandness of taking a position at this time . We think that the statue should no longer stay and have call for that it be moved . ”
Theodore Roosevelt IV , TR ’s not bad - grandson and a museum trustee , supports the statue ’s removal , as does New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio , who said in a statement that " the city support the museum ’s postulation . It is the correct determination and the right prison term to remove this problematical statue . "
It has n’t yet been decide when the statue will be take away , or where it will go . And the museum is n’t completely cutting tie with TR . Instead , it will name its Hall of Biodiversity for Roosevelt “ in laurels of [ his ] role as a lead environmentalist . ”
It ’s possible that Roosevelt would have opt this memorialization to any statue . Michael Cullinane , the historiographer and writer ofTheodore Roosevelt ’s Ghostwho I interviewed for this podcast , wrotein a recent op - ed forThe Washington Postthat “ Theodore Roosevelt never desire a statue . Long before he break down , he left hard-and-fast operating instructions to his wife and kid that no alikeness of himself — equestrian or otherwise — look in Edward Durell Stone or bronze . He even fought a memorial group that sought to keep up his birthplace in New York City . … As a historiographer Roosevelt knew that the past necessarily gets rewrite . He look for an ever - modify bequest . ”
corpse Jenkinson , who I interview for several episode , also emphasizes this point in a unexampled account book of essays he co - edited , calledTheodore Roosevelt , Naturalist in the Arena . He bespeak out that , in 1910 , when North Dakotans want to erect a statue to TR , Roosevelt evoke that a pioneer or groundbreaker family would be more appropriate .
And in 1916 , Rooseveltwrotea letter against building repository to the stagnant , order , “ There is an episodic keen public handmaid to whom it is well to raise a monument ; really not for the man himself , but for what he typified . A monument to Lincoln or Farragut is really a neat symbolic statue to commemorate such timbre as valor and patriotism and love of human race , and a willingness to give everything for the right … As for the rest of us who , with failures and shortcomings , but according to our light , have striven to lead decent life , if any friends of ours wish to commemorate us after destruction the manner to do it is by some facial expression of good deeds to those who are still living . sure a dead man or fair sex , who is a good man or charwoman , would bid to finger that his or her taking aside had become an occasion for real Robert William Service for the amelioration of mankind , rather than to experience that a nonmeaningful pile of gem , no matter how beautiful , had been erected with his or her name upon it in an enclosure crowded with similar piles of gem — for such a tomb or mausoleum often comport chief computer address not to the worth , but to the wealth of the one who is dead . ” In fact , after TR ’s own death , Jenkinson notes that “ his family was halfhearted , sometimes unlimited negative , about commemorating statue . ”
That ’s not to say he was against being honored completely . Jenkinson notes that Roosevelt was thrilled when , in 1911 , a decametre in Arizona was diagnose after him . “ I do not recognise if it is of any consequence to a man whether he has a monument : I have sex it is of mighty little consequence whether he has a statue after he is numb , ” Rooseveltsaid . “ If there could be any monument which would attract to any man , surely it is this . You could not have done anything which would have please and impact me more than to name this great dam , this reservoir site , after me . ”
“ The unmistakable sense one mystify from learn Roosevelt on this subject is that he wanted his historical computer storage to be tied to civil , even civilizational accomplishment , ” Jenkinson write , “ and that the elephantine cyclopean dkm in the Arizona desert — named in his laurels for his vision , his Americanism , his legislative mastery , and his sexual love of the American West — appealed to him as the good way to pay tribute to his life and body of work . "
If the Theodore Roosevelt Facebook group I ’m in is any indication , opinions about the statue ’s removal are heated . To be frank , most citizenry in there are quite tempestuous . But I , for one , think it could be a good thing .
discover me out . Though I ’m capture by TR , it ’s believably clean-cut by now that he was not without his flaw . He was ghost with his image and was n’t above ask his friends to gloss over the fact to paint his spirit and his attainment in the estimable spark . He feel he knew what was proper and did not often need to admit when he ’d been improper . He could be as bitter and as nasty as he could be tolerant . And his views on race ranged from deep paternalistic to openly racist . But understanding those views is important .
As historian andassistant professorat the University of Virginia Justene Hill Edwards read when I question her :
Like many historical human body , TR was aperson — an improbably complex person . He did both good thing and bad affair , and those things should be considered together . Here ’s Edwards again :
In orderliness to even get close to a full moving picture of TR , we require to consider all of the sides of him rather than break up the part that support the imaginativeness of him that we prefer . story , like TR , is complicated . I think the statue ’s removal spurs us to get by with all of that , as well as with America ’s own racist story , and that ’s significant . Which is why I desire that , even if the statue will one Clarence Day be gone , AMNH will keep its exhibit about the work around so visitant can learn from it for decades to come .
As Cullinane write , the statue “ indicates nothing of Roosevelt ’s environmental bequest . Rather , it symbolizes the least appealing facial expression of his instinctive chronicle philosophy . ” I think Cullinane complete it when he say , “ If we honor complex figure , we should ensure we do so in ways that emphasize their enduring contributions , not their spoilt failures . ”
As Jenkinson points out , TR ’s legacy is n’t in a undivided statue — in fact , it ’s all around us . “ Theodore Roosevelt ’s monumental footprint can be found in nearly every United States Department of State in America , ” Jenkinson compose . “ While some of it is appropriately visible … still more is quiet enshrined in the U.S. Navy , in the National Park Service , in the modern identity of the American presidentship , and in countless landscape , parks , and timber across the Western Hemisphere . No other president has such a bequest . No other Chief Executive even comes close . ”
I ’ll go away you with something TR expressed to Cecil Spring Rice in 1905 , on the occasion of his Secretary of State John Hays ’s expiry : “ It is a full thing to die in the harness at the zenith of one ’s fame , with the consciousness of having lived a long , respectable , and utile lifespan , ” he wrote . “ After we are deadened , it will make not the slightest difference of opinion whether men speak well or sick of us . But in the days and hours before dying it must be pleasant to feel that you have done your part as a man and have not yet been shake off aside as useless , and that your children and children ’s children , in short all those that are dearest to you , have just cause for pride in your actions . ”
CREDITS
History Vs.is hosted by me , Erin McCarthy . This episode was written by me , with fact checking and extra research by Austin Thompson .
The Executive Producers are Erin McCarthy , Julie Douglas , and Tyler Klang .
The Supervising Producer is Dylan Fagan .
The show is edit by Dylan Fagan and Lowell Brillante .
To learn more about this episode , and Theodore Roosevelt , check out our web site atmentalfloss.com/historyvs .
History Vs.is a production of iHeart Radio and Mental Floss .
