A Social Studies and Language Arts Activity

 

Treasure Chest Letter:

Letter from Theodore Roosevelt Sr. to Theodore Roosevelt Jr.

Autographed letter, July, 1890: First page
Autographed letter, July, 1890: Second page

Instructions

Read the entire letter above and see if you can answer the following questions: 
  • What is the letter about?
  • How can you identify the sender and recipient?
  • How can you identify when the letter was written?
  • Where was the sender when he wrote the letter?  How do you know?
  • What can you guess about the relationship between father and son?
  • Can you make a guess about the son's age?
  • What might the son have been doing when he received this letter. For example, do you think he was outside building a snowman?  What evidence do you see to support your ideas?
  • What additional information would you need about Theodore Roosevelt and his family to support the evidence in the letter?  Where might you find this type of information?  What types of resources would you look for? 

 
Photograph Map Rare Book