Edith Roosevelt
Edith Kermit Roosevelt was the second wife of President Theodore Roosevelt and the first lady of the United States from 1901 to 1909. She had previously been the second lady of the United States in 1901 and the first lady of New York from 1899 to 1900.
Edith Carow grew up alongside the Roosevelt family and married Theodore Roosevelt in 1886. They established a home in Sagamore Hill, where Edith had five children with Theodore, and they moved back and forth between New York and Washington, D.C., as Theodore's political career progressed over the following years. Edith became a public figure when her husband became a war hero in the Spanish–American War and was elected governor of New York. Theodore became vice president in March 1901, and she became second lady of the United States for six months; she became first lady when the assassination of President William McKinley propelled Theodore to the presidency in September of that year.
The exact nature of Edith's influence over Theodore's presidency is unknown, but they frequently spoke about politics and he often took her advice. She resented the press, feeling that it was intrusive. She leveraged her influence to control when and how they reported on the Roosevelts, and had professional photographs taken of the family so the press would not need to take their own. Edith also controlled Washington social life, organizing weekly meetings of the cabinet members' wives, and became the gatekeeper of who could attend formal events. Her oversight of the 1902 White House renovations and her hiring of the first social secretary for a first lady, Belle Hagner, are described by historians as her most enduring legacies.
Edith took up travel in the years after leaving the White House, frequently touring Europe and Latin America. Her health declined in the 1910s, and she was devastated by the deaths of her son Quentin in 1918 and then Theodore in 1919. She remained politically active, supporting Warren G. Harding in 1920 and Herbert Hoover in 1932. Edith took an interest in her ancestry in the 1920s, writing a book on her ancestors and purchasing her ancestral home in Brooklyn, Connecticut. She lost two more of her sons in the 1940s and was bedridden for the last year of her life. Edith died on September 30, 1948. Historians have consistently ranked her in the upper half of first ladies in periodic polling by the Siena College Research Institute.
Early life
Childhood
Edith Kermit Carow was born on August 6, 1861, in Norwich, Connecticut. She was the first of two daughters born to Charles Carow and Gertrude Elizabeth Tyler. Though her family was wealthy, her father was an unsuccessful businessman as well as a chronic gambler and an alcoholic, while her mother was a hypochondriac. For much of her childhood, the family was forced to move in with various relatives. She was unhappy with her childhood, and she rarely spoke of her parents throughout her adult life.The Carows were close friends with their neighbors, the Roosevelt family. Edith's early schooling took place at the Roosevelt home, as well as the Dodsworth School where she received etiquette instruction. Corinne Roosevelt was Edith's closest childhood friend, and Edith was often brought along with the Roosevelt children in their family activities. At age four, she stood with the Roosevelts on their balcony to watch Abraham Lincoln's funeral procession. Edith and Corinne formed their own literature club as children, the "Party of Renowned Eligibles", in which Edith served as club secretary each week for three years. She also bonded with Corinne's brother, Theodore Roosevelt, over their mutual love of literature. The Carows moved uptown in 1871, where Edith attended Miss Comstock's School. Here she developed a lifelong sense of strict religious morality. She also learned to speak fluent French and took a more active interest in English literature, with a particular focus on the works of William Shakespeare.
Adolescence and young adulthood
During the celebrations for the centennial of the United States in 1876, Edith visited the White House, afterward commenting that it would be unlikely that she should ever visit it again. After graduating from Miss Comstock's School in 1879, she participated in New York's social life, attending balls and making social calls. She was unable to travel, as she had to stay home tending for her parents, who had both fallen ill.Edith and Theodore grew closer as teenagers, and they developed romantic feelings for one another. They stayed in contact when Theodore went to Harvard University, but they had a falling-out in August 1878. The details surrounding this stage of their relationship are not known. Various reasons have been proposed by the families and by historians for their split, including a rejected proposal, Theodore Roosevelt Sr.'s disapproval of Charles Carow's alcoholism, a rumor that the Roosevelts were afflicted with scrofula, or clashing personalities between their strong tempers. They rekindled their friendship in December 1879. By this time, Theodore was engaged to his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee. This caused Edith grief, but she held a dinner in the couple's honor and attended their wedding. She maintained a close relationship with the Roosevelts over the following years, though she was cold toward Alice. Edith's father died from alcohol-related illness in 1883.
Theodore's wife and his mother Martha Bulloch Roosevelt both died in February 1884, so he moved west to distance himself from his life in New York. Edith did not see him for the following year. He avoided her intentionally, worrying that he would be betraying Alice if he developed feelings for Edith. When Theodore returned to New York in September 1885, he encountered Edith by chance at his sister's house. They renewed their relationship and were secretly engaged that November, unwilling to disclose that Theodore was to rewed so soon after the death of his wife. After their engagement was set, they separated for eight months so Edith could help her mother and sister move to Europe while Theodore could settle his business affairs on the frontier. They remained in contact, but she preserved only one of these letters.
Edith and her sister inherited an interest in a building on Stone Street in New York, and in 1886 they took the New York Elevated Railroad Company and the Manhattan Railway Company to court, alleging that the companies had caused damage to the building during rail construction. The trial went on until it was decided in the Carow sisters' favor in 1890.
Marriage and family
Sagamore Hill
Edith and Theodore traveled to London, where they were wed at St George's, Hanover Square, on December 2, 1886. They spent their honeymoon in Europe over the winter, going to France and then visiting Edith's family at their new home in Italy before returning to England. The Roosevelts returned to New York in March 1887. They stayed with Theodore's sister Bamie for the next two months, then moved into Leeholm, the Oyster Bay house that Theodore had intended to live in with his first wife. The house was subsequently renamed Sagamore Hill. Edith promptly had her own family's furniture brought in to replace the furniture from Theodore's previous marriage. This was to be the Roosevelts' home for the rest of their lives. Edith decided that her stepdaughter Alice was to live with them and was to refer to Edith as her mother. Separating Alice from her aunt, who had previously been caring for her, began a lifelong enmity between Edith and her stepdaughter.Sagamore Hill had a staff of approximately 12 servants, and Edith found herself managing the entire staff and estate by herself. Each morning, Edith tended to the household chores while Theodore worked on his writing, and then the two went walking or rowing in the afternoons. She was content with a quiet, domestic life, but she accepted that Theodore would often bring home company for her to entertain. To her displeasure, her husband was frequently away on trips west. She began suffering headaches that plagued her for the rest of her life, sometimes leaving her bedridden.
Edith's first child, Theodore III, was born September 13, 1887. She hired her own childhood nanny, Mary Ledwith, to care for the children. Edith then underwent a period of postpartum depression, and she experienced a miscarriage the following year.
Managing the family became a large responsibility, in part because she considered her husband to be one of the children for his involvement in their trouble-making, and she frequently hosted their family friend Cecil Spring Rice. In October 1888, Edith joined Theodore in traveling west to campaign for Benjamin Harrison in that year's presidential election, finding the experience enjoyable. After Harrison's victory, he repaid Theodore with a position on the Civil Service Commission. Edith was pregnant again, and she stayed at Sagamore Hill while Theodore moved to Washington, D.C. His absences especially took a toll on her while she was pregnant, causing her further depression. Edith's second son, Kermit, was born on October 10, 1889. She joined her husband in Washington that December.
Washington, D.C.
During her time in Washington, Edith took on more serious hosting responsibilities as the wife of a political figure, and she befriended several of the city's major figures, developing a particularly close friendship with Henry Adams. She preferred Washington to New York, and after arriving, she made her first of many visits to the Smithsonian Institution and Fischer's antique shop. She looked back fondly on these years later in life. She attended several receptions at the White House in 1890 with her husband, and was now received as a guest rather than a tourist. She retired to Sagamore Hill that summer at the end of the social season, and she accompanied Theodore on his travels west. While initially hesitant, she came to share her husband's love of the Badlands and Yellowstone.Edith gave birth to a daughter, Ethel, on August 13, 1891. With a growing family and both their New York and Washington homes to maintain, the Roosevelts struggled financially. Edith was in charge of all the family's finances, keeping meticulous records and allotting $20 per day to her husband. The increasingly erratic behavior of Theodore's alcoholic brother Elliott became the family's primary focus until his sudden death in 1894.
The Roosevelts were invited to dine at the White House for the first time on February 1, 1894, where Edith was seated directly next to President Grover Cleveland. Edith had another son, Archibald, on April 9, 1894. When Theodore considered running a campaign to be mayor of New York in 1894, Edith implored him not to because she preferred life in Washington and because he would have a smaller salary as mayor. He regretted not running to the point of depression, and Edith made a promise not to give further input on his political career. The promise was not kept for long.