Roosevelt Institute for American Studies
The Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS) is a research institute, graduate school, conference center, and library for the study of US history and transatlantic relations in the modern era located in Zeeuws Archief, in Middelburg, the Netherlands. Up to 2017, it was known as the Roosevelt Study Center. The Institute is named after three famous Americans, whose ancestors emigrated from Zeeland, the Netherlands, to the United States in the seventeenth century: President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), and Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962).
History and activities
The roots of the Institute date back to 1982, when Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., noted American historian, and William J. vanden Heuvel, president of the Roosevelt Institute in Hyde Park, New York, launched the initiative to establish a European research facility specialized in twentieth-century American history in Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland. Their initiative, discussed with the Provincial Government of Zeeland in the years 1982–1984, resulted in the opening of the Roosevelt Study Center in 1986.
In 2016, 30 years after its founding, the Center entered into a partnership with the University of Leiden. Consequently, the Center was renamed to the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies, and acquired a new set of activities, including the establishment of a graduate school for US history. The RIAS is subsidized by the Provincial Government of Zeeland and the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science. Private corporations and institutions sponsor particular programs of the RIAS.
The RIAS cooperates with Dutch universities in research projects, as well as with the Theodore Roosevelt Association and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute in various ways. The center, for instance, annually awards the best Master Thesis on American History with the Theodore Roosevelt American History Award (TRAHA), which grants the winner a trip to the key sites of interest of the Roosevelts.
The RIAS regularly organizes and hosts conferences and lectures on U.S. history and culture and on European-U.S. relations. It also publishes an annual newsletter in December, The Roosevelt.
Collections and research
The RIAS has an extensive library collection on American and transatlantic history, including both secondary and primary sources. While the extensive book collection, with more than 9500 entries, can be searched by use of an online catalogue, the institute also owns more than a hundred microfilm collections and digital resources. These include, among others, copies of the papers of President Theodore Roosevelt; the presidential Office Files of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy; the papers of W.E.B. Du Bois; and Dutch-American diplomatic correspondence (dating back to 1784).
The RIAS library is freely accessible to any interested researchers in American history, culture, or Dutch-American relations. It also offers two kinds of grants for stimulating research in Middelburg: the Roosevelt Visiting Professorship and research grants provided by the institute itself. The former is meant for American scholars, while latter enables European scholars and students to research various topics related to U.S. history at the Roosevelt Institute for American studies without crossing the Atlantic.
Four Freedoms Awards
Since 1982, the year that commemorated the centennial of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's birth and the bicentennial of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Netherlands, The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Medals are awarded in even-numbered years in Middelburg's Abbey and in odd-numbered years in Hyde Park, New York. These prestigious medals are awarded to men and women who have demonstrated an enduring commitment to the four principle freedoms as expressed by President Franklin Roosevelt in his State of the Union Message of January 6, 1941: Freedom of Speech and Expression, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from want, and Freedom from fear.
The laureates of the Four Freedoms Awards in Middelburg include:
- Princess Juliana of the Netherlands
- The Dalai Lama
- Václav Havel
- Desmond Tutu
- Nelson Mandela
- Kofi Annan
- Mohammed ElBaradei
External links
- Website Roosevelt Institute for American Studies
- Website Four Freedom Awards
- v
- t
- e
- 26th President of the United States (1901–1909)
- 25th Vice President of the United States (1901)
- 33rd Governor of New York (1899–1900)
- Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1897–1898)
- New York City Police Commissioner (1895–1897)
(timeline)
- First inauguration
- Second inauguration
- Foreign policy
- "Square Deal"
- Booker T. Washington dinner
- Conservation
- Northern Securities Company breakup
- Coal strike of 1902
- Pure Food and Drug Act
- Meat Inspection Act
- Expediting Act
- Elkins Act
- Hepburn Act
- Aldrich–Vreeland Act
- Tillman Act of 1907
- Federal Employers Liability Act
- Kinkaid Act
- Big stick ideology
- Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty
- Venezuelan crisis
- Occupation of Cuba
- Russo-Japanese War
- Army War College
- Roosevelt Hall
- College football meetings
- Bureau of Investigation
- Department of Commerce and Labor
- Keep Commission
- Inland Waterways Commission
- Bureau of the Census
- Great White Fleet
- Perdicaris affair
- Cabinet
- White House West Wing
- State of the Union Address, 1901
- 1906
- 1908
- White House desk
- Federal judiciary appointments
events
homes
and speeches
- Theodore Roosevelt bibliography
- The Naval War of 1812 (1882 book)
- "The Strenuous Life" (1899 speech)
- League to Enforce Peace
- "Citizenship in a Republic" (1910 speech)
- "Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual" (1912 post-assassination-attempt speech)
- Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (1913 book)
- The Forum magazine articles
- Theodore Roosevelt Cyclopedia
- Archival collections
- Bibliography
- Mount Rushmore
- Theodore Roosevelt Center and Digital Library
- White House Roosevelt Room
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park
- Theodore Roosevelt Island
- Roosevelt National Forest
- Roosevelt Park (San Antonio)
- Roosevelt Study Center
- Theodore Roosevelt Association
- Mount Rushmore Anniversary coins
- Statues
- New York City
- Portland, Oregon
- Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park
- Theodore Roosevelt Monument
- Roosevelt Memorial, Portland, Oregon
- Proposed presidential library
- Theodore Roosevelt United States Courthouse
- Roosevelt River
- Theodore Roosevelt Bridge
- Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bridge
- Theodore Roosevelt Award
- USS Theodore Roosevelt (1906, 1961, 1984)
- Roosevelt Road
- U.S. postage stamps
culture
- Teddy bear
- "Speak softly, and carry a big stick"
- Books
- Films
- Terrible Teddy, the Grizzly King, 1901 film
- Roosevelt in Africa, 1910 documentary
- The Rough Riders, 1927 film
- Teddy, the Rough Rider, 1940 film
- Rough Riders, 1997 miniseries
- The Roosevelts, 2014 documentary
- Theodore Roosevelt, 2022 miniseries
- Alice Hathaway Lee (first wife)
- Edith Kermit Carow (second wife)
- Alice Lee Roosevelt (daughter)
- Theodore Roosevelt III (son)
- Kermit Roosevelt (son)
- Ethel Carow Roosevelt (daughter)
- Archibald Roosevelt (son)
- Quentin Roosevelt (son)
- Theodore Roosevelt IV (grandson)
- Cornelius V. S. Roosevelt III (grandson)
- Quentin Roosevelt II (grandson)
- Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (grandson)
- Joseph Willard Roosevelt (grandson)
- Edith Roosevelt Derby (granddaughter)
- Theodora Roosevelt (granddaughter)
- Theodore Roosevelt Sr. (father)
- Martha Bulloch Roosevelt (mother)
- Anna "Bamie" Roosevelt (sister)
- Elliott Bulloch Roosevelt (brother)
- Corinne Roosevelt (sister)
- Cornelius Roosevelt (grandfather)
- James Stephens Bulloch (grandfather)
- James Alfred Roosevelt (uncle)
- Robert Barnhill Roosevelt
- Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (niece)
- Gracie Hall Roosevelt (nephew)
- Pete (dog)