Theodore Roosevelt was born to a wealthy New York socialite and businessman. Nicknamed “Teedie”. He was a sickly bespectacled child. Homeschooled because of his breathing issues he had a velvet cushion made for him to sit on. 

Doctors prescribed young Roosevelt to drink whiskey and smoke cigars to treat his mystery breathing troubles, which was most likely asthma.

As a child he toured the world, including Europe, Africa and the middle east with his parents.

Theodore became interested with the wonders of the natural world. He acquired the head of a dead seal from a local seafood market and taught himself taxidermy. He started a “Museum of Natural History” in his bedroom of animals he had found or killed.

In traditional American tattooing, and particularly the work of Sailor Jerry, nautical stars and ships represent world travels.

While giving a speech Teddy was shot. The bullet was slowed by the pages of his speech and his glasses case. The bullet penetrated his chest and he began to bleed. He continued his speech for 90 minutes then went to the hospital where they decided it was safer to leave the bullet in place.

Teddy had a boxing ring in the White House. He challenged statesmen and the hired help alike to fight him in the ring. While in office he lost sight in one eye from boxing.

As a teen Theodore became obsessed with overcoming all weakness. He trained physically through boxing, weightlifting and gymnastics. This was the start of his “strenuous life” concept.

Roosevelt met and married Alice Lee while away at Harvard. While on their honeymoon in Switzerland, Roosevelt left and climbed the Matterhorn.

Roosevelt wanted to hunt a buffalo in North Dakota, he commissioned a buckskin suit in New York city and a custom knife and sheath from Tiffany’s. His Badland guides assumed he wouldn’t last a day when they saw the costume-like outfitters gear, but he lasted weeks until he got his bison and gained a reputation as a city slicker with grit.

Teddy’s wife, Alice, died two days after giving birth to their first child. Teddy’s Mother died that same day in the same house. It was Valentines Day.

Teddy wrote in his date book on 2/14/1884 “The light has gone out of my life.” After the double funeral he wrote; “For joy or for sorrow, my life has now been lived out.”

Teddy took his sorrows out west. He left his newborn daughter, Alice, with his sister and buried himself in the hard lifestyle of the Dakotas.

Christmas trees were banned in the White House while Roosevelt was in office, as cutting down trees went against his conservationist beliefs.

While on an unsuccessful bear hunt, the guide found and chained up a helpless bear for Theodore to add to his hunting trophies. Roosevelt refused to shoot the poor animal. This story led to the making of the children’s stuffed toy the “Teddy Bear”.

Edith Kermit, who Teddy knew since childhood, became Roosevelt’s second wife. She was the lighthouse that brought him home from the wild west. They married and Edith raised Alice and five more children they had together.

As a young police commissioner in New York, he broke up corruption in the city by touring the streets at night with a flash camera. He would “shoot” down dark allies. The photos, once developed, exposed corrupt police officers and politicians. It is said that his personality and efforts as police commissioner inspired the making of the Batman comics and character.

Roosevelt established the rough riders a group of volunteers to fight the Spanish American war in Cuba. The company comprised of Ivy League gentlemen, western cowboys, sheriffs, prospectors, police officers, and Native Americans.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. “ - Teddy Roosevelt, The Man in the Arena

Theodore Roosevelt established the National parks Service. While the purpose of our nature’s conservation is noble, it pushed out scores of indigenous people who had occupied the land for hundreds of years.