In 1980, Alice Gore King donated 588 letters to the Houghton Library at Harvard University. The letters had been written by Edith Kermit Roosevelt to Miss King's mother, Marion King, between 1920 and 1947. Mrs. Roosevelt was the wife of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States. Marion King was, for almost fifty years, a staff member at The New York Society Library. This treasury of letters documents the little-known friendship between the President's wife and the Librarian.
This exhibition marks the first time this relationship and correspondence have been displayed in public. The letters and accompanying materials offer a unique view of an influential First Lady's literary tastes and opinions and a touching story of a friendship stretching through a tumultuous period of American history.
Library members and their guests are cordially invited to get a first glimpse of this groundbreaking exhibition at the opening reception and presentation on April 2, 2009.
Sylvia Jukes Morris is the author of the definitive biography of Theodore Roosevelt's wife,
Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady. She will also give a full lecture about Mrs. Roosevelt on April 30, 2009.
Wallace Finley Dailey is Curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard College Library.
This exhibition is generously supported in part by Theodore and Constance Rogers Roosevelt, Helen D. Roosevelt, and Mary Kongsgaard and Richard Williams.
