Two Accomplished Writers and a National Park Service Ranger from Sagamore Hill NHS will Speak at Theodore Roosevelt Event this Summer at Trolley Museum

Seashore Trolley Museum will present a new weekend event Beginning this summer on July 31, 2015. The weekend event titled, Theodore Roosevelt: Naturalist, Nature, and the Narcissus, honors our 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt, and his conservation efforts, while celebrating his connection to Seashore's own 1912, Portland-Lewiston Interurban No. 14, Narcissus. Proceeds benefit the Narcissus restoration project. This weekend includes engaging, enlightening, challenging, and fun activities and programs for all.  This event embraces Theodore Roosevelt's passion for observing and understanding nature, his vigor for an active outdoor life, his commitment to conservation, and his connections to Maine. More details about the event activities and the listing of the great organizations participating will be in future blogs. Here are the featured speakers for the exciting weekend.

Chip Bishop

Chip Bishop will be speaking about his new book, Quentin & Flora - A Roosevelt and a Vanderbilt in Love during the Great War. 

Chip is a member of the board of directors of the Biographers International Organization, on the Advisory Board of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, and on the executive committee of its New England chapter. He is the great-grandnephew of Joseph Bucklin Bishop, Theodore Roosevelt’s authorized biographer, who was profiled in his first book, The Lion and the Journalist – The Unlikely Friendship of Theodore Roosevelt and Joseph Bucklin Bishop. Chip has now started a biography of Elliott Roosevelt, TR's younger brother and the father of Eleanor Roosevelt. Mr. Bishop will be signing and selling his books at the event on Friday, July 31, at 3pm.

Theodore Roosevelt (sitting) with his brother Elliott
wearing hunting outfits ca 1880 summer,
TRC 520.12-018, Houghton Library, Harvard University

TR's brother Elliott, is Eleanor Roosevelt's father. TR would become the 26th President of the United States. Eleanor would marry Franklin D. Roosevelt, a distant cousin, who later became the 32nd President of the United States.

Andrew Vietze

The former Managing Editor of Down East: The Magazine of Maine, Andrew Vietze is a bestselling author. The critically acclaimed Becoming Teddy Roosevelt (Down East, 2010) won a silver medal at the Independent Publisher Book Awards in New York, was a ForeWord Book of the Year Finalist, and was the inspiration for Coastal Maine BotanicalGarden's new program for middle schoolers, the Lunder New Naturalists, which is now part of the curriculum at 20 Maine schools and involves more than 600 students. The book speaks to when Theodore Roosevelt went into the Maine Woods with legendary Maine guide Bill Sewall, he was a sickly, asthmatic city boy. When he emerged several trips later, he was a robust, confident outdoorsman—the kind of man who could be president. This book describes the lifelong friendship between the twenty-sixth president and the lumberman from Island Falls and explores how that bond changed Roosevelt (and the nation) and why it matters today. Andrew will be signing and selling his books at the event on Saturday and Sunday, August 1st and 2nd.

William Wingate Sewall, Wilmot Dow, and Theodore Roosevelt
with snowshoes in Maine ca February 1879
Houghton Library, Harvard University 

While an undergraduate student at Harvard University, Theodore Roosevelt visited Island Falls, Maine on three occasions between 1878 and 1879. TR would stay at the Sewall's home and William Sewall and William's nephew, Wilmot Dow,  would be TR's guides. 

R.Joshua Reyes

Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, NY
Collection of PWM

Joshua Reyes  

Joshua Reyes is a National Park Service Park Ranger at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, the Theodore Roosevelt family home in Oyster Bay, NY. Josh has worked for the National Park Service for twelve years. He is the volunteer coordinator at Sagamore Hill and will speak about TR's family life at Sagamore Hill as well as provide some insight into the three-year renovation of the site. The anticipated reopening date for Sagamore Hill is July 12, 2015. The National Park Service Centennial will be celebrated in August 2016 and to kick off the year approaching the centennial, the NPS has introduced the new

Find Your Park program.

Josh will be speaking to guests on Friday night, July 31, Saturday, August 1, and Sunday, August 2.

Theodore Roosevelt in the dining room of his beloved home,
Sagamore Hill ca 1894,  TRC R500.R67-002 Houghton Library, Harvard University

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We continue the restoration work on the 1912, Narcissus, the only surviving high-speed, luxury interurban coach of the Portland-Lewiston Interurban. 

Click Here: Narcissus Restoration-Related Posts

Being more than a century old, the stately, "Elegant Ride," Narcissus, is a gem.  This shimmering precious stone of Maine transportation history is brilliantly resplendent as it emanates so many elements of history, including; time, places, people, and events, that it was coupled to, that when just a smattering of its seemingly innumerable stories are shared, the contents captivates, fascinates, then generates, interest to learn more 🙋. The majestic Narcissus is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Please consider joining the epic journey to complete the Narcissus Project by making a donation today!

Click Here: Donation Options

The restoration of this majestic icon of Maine's electric railway history is but one in a series of captivating stories containing an abundance of incredible coalition of narratives.

Click Here: History-Related Posts - Narcissus and Portland-Lewiston Interurban

     The Narcissus is featured in the national Gold Award-winning novel, Teddy Roosevelt, Millie, and the Elegant Ride. The "Elegant Ride" is the Narcissus. Theodore Roosevelt was a passenger on the Narcissus on August 18, 1914, between Lewiston and Portland, Maine, while campaigning for the Progressive Party candidates.

Click Here: Bookstores and Businesses promoting the Narcissus Project

Independent book publisher, Phil Morse, holding

the Gold Book Award Winner plaque for

 the Middle Reader category for The Eric

Hoffer Book Award. Congratulations to

award-winning Maine author,

Jean M. Flahive