May 31, 2007

 

The great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt visited Grand Valley State University and the Michigan Legislature.

Tweed Roosevelt came Michigan to commemorate the 100th anniversary of President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous trip to Michigan in May 1907. Arriving in Lansing 100 years ago this month, Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to address the Michigan Legislature.
In commemoration of this landmark, the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at Grand Valley partnered with the Michigan Department of History, Arts, and Libraries and the office of Michigan Sen. Cameron Brown to bring Tweed Roosevelt to Michigan May 30 and 31.
Roosevelt gave a public address May 31, at 7 p.m., in Loosemore Auditorium. He discussed Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing 1913 trek down the River of Doubt in Brazil — a journey Tweed Roosevelt retraced almost 80 years later.

As part of the commemoration, Roosevelt, along with best-selling TR biographer H.W. Brands, gave talks in the Michigan State Capitol Building in Lansing, and a Theodore Roosevelt character interpreter read TR’s 1907 speech to the Michigan Senate.

Watch the lecture here.