Teddy Roosevelt Items Chosen for New Badlands’ Library

Important Roosevelt memorabilia preserved in a North Carolina farmhouse is now being installed in the Rough Riders’ South Dakota library.

Tom Peeling with Theodore Roosevelt memorabilia in his Franklin, N.C. home museum. Becky Peeling

Tom Peeling is a lifelong collector of Theodore Roosevelt memorabilia, mostly political campaign buttons. His home museum in Franklin, North Carolina, includes countless items that sport the 26th president’s photograph or illustrated likeness.

Peeling’s collection has garnered national attention from like-minded historians. Two years ago, it drew the interest of Senior Curator of Collections Susan Sarna for inclusion in the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota. The library is set to open, fittingly, on the 250th anniversary of America, July 4th.

Peeling is the editor of Keynoter magazine, a quarterly for the American Political Items Collectors organization. He explained that he developed an interest in Theodore Roosevelt when he was a boy. While exploring his grandfather’s attic, he discovered Roosevelt memorabilia.

The curator, he said, wanted items related to particular aspects of Theodore Roosevelt’s life.

Quality Teddy Roosevelt memorabilia hails from a small town in North Carolina. Tom and Becky Peeling

Sarna flew from New York to Peeling’s Western North Carolina home to spend a few days evaluating his collection and taking photographs of items that she was interested in.

“Eventually she asked me about 38 items and whether I would be willing to loan them to the museum for three years,” Peeling said. “I agreed, and in May of this year the items were shipped to the museum in Medora, North Dakota, to be used in the displays.”

Over a Century in the Making

Roosevelt, who died in 1919, is one past president who doesn’t have a designated presidential library. Historic artifacts, political memorabilia, paintings of him, and other objects have primarily been stored at Harvard University, which Roosevelt attended, as well as spread throughout various museum sites and in private homes, like Peeling’s.

Global architectural firm Snohetta, known for contemporary projects, designed the new structure so that it blends into the distinct, hilly Badlands that Roosevelt cherished when he hunted and ranched there in the late 1800s.

The new library’s website communicates: “This is not a traditional presidential library.” Less than a mile from the national park that bears the former president’s name, the library is intended to provide both an experience of the surrounding wild, preserved landscape and a visual deep-dive through multiple exhibits into Roosevelt’s personal and political life.

The items Peeling offered for exhibit for three years help to “tell the story of TR’s life,” he shared. For example, an engraved metal pocket knife with the likeness of Roosevelt in a slouch hat conveys his time as a Rough Rider fighting in the Spanish American War. A campaign button attached with a real rabbit’s foot for “good luck” was created when he was running for governor of New York.

A lucky rabbit's foot is attached to a Teddy Roosevelt button. Tom and Becky Peeling

“My collection spans most of his lifetime, so it worked out well,” Peeling said about the items Sarna chose.

Although Peeling and his wife were invited to the opening on July 4, they decided to visit after the hoopla has died down.

Peeling said that it’s an honor to know some of the items he has collected are on display. However, what is most important, he noted, is that the new presidential library offers a thorough presentation of the dynamic 26th president in a single location.

“I’ve been a fan of TR for most of my life, so having so many items from my collection on loan to the new library is pretty special. As I understand it, more of my items are on display in the museum than from any other private collector.”

What arts and culture topics would you like us to cover? Please email ideas or feedback to [email protected]