TR's return to New York, 1910 [1].

On June 18, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt returned to New York City after a fifteen-month tour abroad, having travelled through Africa and western Europe. An elaborate city celebration drawing a million people marked his homecoming. Aboard the ocean liner Kaiserin Auguste Victoria ex-President and Mrs. Roosevelt were met by a revenue cutter, the Manhattan, carrying the Roosevelt children. TR then went aboard a larger cutter, the Androscoggin, and officially became a guest of the city. After boating up the Hudson River along the New Jersey shore to West Fifty-Ninth St., the Androscoggin moved back along the Manhattan shore to Battery Park, followed by a water parade of almost one hundred vessels. TR was greeted by Mayor William J. Gaynor at the Park, where both briefly spoke to an assembled crowd, with notables seated on a flag-draped stand expanded for the occasion to hold 600 people. Battery ceremonies were followed by a parade up Broadway and Fifth Avenue to the Fifty-Ninth St. plaza, where it dispersed. In the parade TR, Mayor William J. Gaynor, and chairman of the city's welcoming committee, Cornelius Vanderbilt, together rode in an open carriage, preceded by TR's regiment of Rough Riders, First United States Volunteer Cavalry. Also in the parade were approximately 2000 other veterans of the Spanish-American War. On the film are views of the open harbor, with various vessels assembled for TR's visit, including the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, the Androscoggin, and the Manhattan; TR alone on the lookout station of what appears to be the Androscoggin as it moves into port; street scene in which photographers scramble to get clear view of carriages as notables pass through street cordoned off with greenery; TR and Vanderbilt move toward Battery speakers platform, beside which is visible the stand erected for TR's family and dignitaries; TR and Mayor Gaynor, who steps forward to greet TR, ascend platform; men mill around base of platform; side view of TR speaking from written notes, with Gaynor behind him; scenes of crowds and tents in what appears to be Central Park south; parade moves toward camera and passes in front of decorated stands; TR, standing in carriage, pauses in front of stands; shots of mounted police, mounted band, carriages, marching band.
Appearing: President Theodore Roosevelt, the Roosevelt children, Mrs. Roosevelt, Mayor William J. Gaynor, Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Duration: 7:42 at 20 fps.
Duration: 3:49 (part 1); 3:53 (part 2) at 20 fps.
Photographed June 18, 1910 in New York City.
May have originally been part of a newsreel.
Roosevelt Memorial Association inventory number RMA 303-04.
Sources used: The Theodore Roosevelt Association...catalog, p. 159; LC Prints & Photographs Division portrait file; LC Prints & Photographs Division presidential file.
Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as digital files.
Collection transferred to LC from National Park Service in 1967. Previous owners: Roosevelt Memorial Association; Cy Braunstein.
The Theodore Roosevelt Association film collection : a catalog / prepared by Wendy White-Henson and Veronica M. Gillespie. Library of Congress, 1986.