The Wilcox house at 641 Delaware Avenue is sitting empty. The community is concerned about its fate. But this isn’t the early 1960’s . . . it’s 1936. Mary Grace Wilcox had died in 1933 and the contents of the house had been auctioned off the previous year. In an odd preview of the drive that would, three decades later, successfull...
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In its restored rooms (the dining room, the morning room and the library), the TR Site strives to re-create the way the house looked when TR was here in September 1901. While some of the furniture on display are “period” pieces or items that were similar to those that the Wilcox family may have owned in 1901, the most prized furnishings...
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On Election Day 2016, approximately 10.7 million people will be eligible to vote for the first time in a presidential election. For this group, made up of both young people who just turned 18 as well as newly naturalized American citizens, it may be their first chance to participate in the American political process. Our Artifact-of-the-Month sp...
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Does this man look like Theodore Roosevelt to you? With his pince-nez glasses and his toothy grin, Theodore Roosevelt (TR) has a look that few people could mistake. While this poster proudly claims “Theodore Roosevelt For Governor,” it causes many visitors to do a double-take because it's most decidedly not the TR we know and love. ...
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“What is the most interesting/unique/weird item in your collection?” For me, this frequently asked question has a fairly easy answer - the needle used to sew up President McKinley’s stomach. Yes, you read that right. I know the questions that are swirling around. I had the same questions that I had the first time I saw this obj...
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Curved strands of red and blue script encircle a neoclassical building stitched onto this Pan-American Exposition souvenir handkerchief. The text identifies the structure as the Temple of Music—where President William McKinley was shot on September 6, 1901. Looking at the handkerchief alongside an actual illustration of the Temple of Music, ...
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Here at the Site, we’re preparing for our third annual April Fool’s Fun event, which takes place this weekend (April 2nd & 3rd, from noon to 4pm each day). So, each day, odd things are coming into the collections department, on temporarily loan for this special event that adds all sorts of anachronisitc items to the museum's restore...
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In the aftermath of Theodore Roosevelt’s inauguration on September 14, 1901, Ansley Wilcox appeared to be acutely aware that a significant historical event had happened in the library of his Delaware Avenue home. He took great pains to save some of the objects from the inauguration - most prominently, the frock coat that Roosevelt borrowed fr...
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In the last months of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, larger-than-usual crowds gathered at the festival’s majestic concert hall known as the Temple of Music. Some were drawn to the structure to marvel at its architecture while others came to watch one of its grand performances. Many visited the Temple of Music, however, to stand in the spo...
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A policeman stands guard at the front walk of the stately brick house depicted on this postcard. We see the building in three-quarter view, which leaves much of its façade obscured by trees and a coating of vegetation. Despite the foliage, this view puts one of the house’s most historic features on display. The postcard reads, “...
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The leaves are falling, the air is getting chilly (sigh!), this week is Thanksgiving and I’d like to think that the votes have chosen the perfect Artifact-of-the-Month for this time of year. November’s artifact is a political cartoon entitled “Thanksgiving 1907” which was featured on the front cover of the Puck magazine ...
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The masses have spoken (okay, a few people – where was everyone else?) and the October Artifact-of-the-Month is (drum roll please!) . . . . . . the Pan-American Exposition/Monkey pin!! In 1899, the Pan-American Exposition Company sponsored a competition to design the official logo for Buffalo’s 1901 Pan-American Exposition. Out of m...
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Today is the 114th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt taking the oath of office in the library of the Wilcox home. With that timing, the choice of a souvenir of the 1901 inauguration for our first Artifact-of-the-Month would seem an easy one. Except finding an object to feature wasn’t as easy as one would imagine. Coming in the wake of Will...
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The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site is operated by the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site Foundation, a registered non-profit organization, through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.
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