No one ever craved the presidency more than Theodore Roosevelt or used its powers more joyously. In early 1901, however, his rise toward that office was suddenly checked. Having gained national prominence as a civil service reformer, hero of the Spanish-American War, and reform-minded governor of New York, he was now relegated to a political backwater as William McKinley's Vice President. But McKinley's assassination several months later changed all of that, and Roosevelt was soon rushing headlong into one of American history's most productive presidencies. By the time he left office in 1909, his accomplishments ranged everywhere from implementing landmark efforts to conserve the nation's disappearing natural heritage, to instituting some of the first significant curbs on the excesses of big business, to building the Panama Canal.

Teddy Roosevelt was a vitalizer, an inspirer of movement and optimism in others. "Get action," he trumpeted, "do things, be sane." Taking him to heart as a rousing symbol for youth, the Jacob Riis Settlement House in New York City commissioned Sally Farnham, in 1905, to execute this bronze plaque to fix to the wall of their gymnasium - an unexpected tribute to a President, but for Theodore Roosevelt an entirely appropriate one.

Sally James Farnham (1876-1943)
Bronze relief, 1906
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
NPG.74.16

Enlarged image