Boxer, Cowboy, Soldier, President: Happy Birthday TR!

Happy birthday to inarguably the most colorful US president of all time! Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858, and we talk about him a lot here because we love him so much, especially his work to promote conservation and save public lands, and that he proceeded with a 90 minute stump speech after being shot in the chest. Here are a few more reasons he is the original "Most Interesting Man in the World:"

- TR was the first president to appoint a Jewish cabinet member (Secretary of Commerce and Labor, Oscar Solomon Straus), and invite a black man (the esteemed Booker T. Washington) to have dinner at the White House.
- TR had a boxing ring in the White House, and would challenge staff members and visitors to matches. An unfortunately placed punch blinded him in his left eye during his presidency; which was kept a very close secret by only TR's closest confidantes. 
- Following his presidency, TR went on scientific expeditions to Africa and South America, bringing back specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and American Museum of Natural History. During the latter expedition, he contracted a tropical fever after jumping to the river to prevent a collision of the group's canoes with some jagged rocks, and cutting his leg. His condition was so bad that he begged his small party to go on without him, and let him perish, out of concern that he was endangering them all. It was only at his son Kermit's insistence that he continued on.
- TR walked Eleanor Roosevelt down the aisle at her wedding to FDR.
- After his presidency, TR also took up the cause of women's suffrage. He delivered a famous speech for the cause in 1915 at the Metropolitan Opera House stating:

"Conservative friends tell me that woman’s duty is the home. Certainly. So is man's. The duty of a woman to the home isn’t any more than the man’s. If any married man doesn’t know that the woman pulls a little more than her share in the home he needs education. If the average man has more leisure to think of public matters than the average woman has, then it’s a frightful reflection on him. If the average man tells you the average woman hasn’t the time to think of these questions, tell him to go home and do his duty. The average woman needs fifteen minutes to vote, and I want to point out to the alarmist that she will have left 364 days, 23 hours and 45 minutes."

Photograph is a different view of TR than we usually see; a young Teddy Roosevelt in 1880 in his mountaineering attire, 21 years before he would become president. Part of the New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection held by the Library of Congress.

165 Years Ago Today- The First "National Woman's Rights Convention"

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A poem read at the National Woman's Rights Convention, and reprinted in William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator on November 15, 1850.

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Circa 1870 Photograph of Lucretia Mott by F. Gutekunst of Philadelphia, PA.

On October 23, 1850, in Worcester, MA, women from across the country met for the first time to create a organized plan of action for gaining equal rights.  The Seneca Falls Convention had been held two years earlier, but that meeting had been somewhat impromptu, and was only regional.  The National Woman's Rights Convention was planned for months, and included participants from across the country.  Twenty years later, in 1870, Elizabeth Cady Stanton would state that the Women's Rights "movement in England, as in America, may be dated from the first National Convention, held at Worcester, Mass., October, 1850."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was not present herself at the convention, because she was about to give birth, but she sent a letter that was read to the crowd, giving her support to the movement. Among those who were in attendance were Lucretia Mott, Lucy Stone, William Lloyd Garrison, and Frederick Douglass; the latter two famous abolitionists being some of  the original male Feminists.  The causes of abolition and women's rights had a complicated relationship; women like Stanton, Mott, and Stone started their activist careers as abolitionists, but were outraged to find that many male abolitionists would not allow them to speak publicly for the movement, or to play an active role in the cause. This inspired these women to start demanding equal rights from themselves.  Many male abolitionists supported the movement, like Garrison and Douglass, believing there should be equal rights for all.  Others saw these women as stepping outside their intended role; the Evangelical community made up a large percent of the anti-slavery movement, and believed these women's ideas went against the Bible's teachings.

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Lucy Stone

Along with the many speeches given and debates had over two days, the Convention formed the first organized committees for a cohesive movement across the country.  These committees created local chapters, and addressed fundraising, publicity, education, employment, and lobbying, among other needs and goals. This fundamentally changed and strengthened the movement- putting forth a unified message to the world.  The Convention became a yearly event, and continued to gain momentum and attendees.  

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An example of the backlash from the Convention, reprinted by The Anti-Slavery Bugle.

These efforts helped to give women better property rights and rights to the wages they earned, more legal standing within the family structure- including parental rights and the increased ability to initiate a divorce, and eventually suffrage.  Without these brave women, and men, we ladies would not be where we are today! So raise a glass to the National Woman's Convention, and celebrate that you live in the 21st century they helped to create!  Or ladies, just wear some pants, show little ankle, revel in your independent checking account, go to work, and earn a fair wage!

A Sure Cure

Some humorous words on marriage from 1899...

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Women's Equality Day

Happy Women's Equality Day, friends! Today in 1920, the 19th Amendment was certified as law, and finally granted women the right to vote in America. A big thanks to all our fore-mothers who fought hard to give us our say! To celebrate, we have been listening to our favorite song about women's suffrage on repeat; even though Mrs. Banks was singing about English women's suffrage (all women's suffrage is important, and sadly still a fight in many places in the world).