tr

An unusually beautiful crowd photo from this period. I love the framing, with TR, the subject of the rapt attention, off-camera to the left, and the timing, which captures the pleased faces and gestures of the crowd. Susan Barsy OUR POLITY

Former President Theodore Roosevelt stands on the deck of the steamship Aidan, in New York harbor, on May 19, 1914. The ship had docked minutes earlier, after returning Roosevelt from an eight-month ordeal in South America where, with his son Kermit and others, he had explored a hitherto unknown river through the Amazon jungle -- called "The River of Doubt," but afterwards named "Rio Roosevelt." The harrowing adventure was told recently in the bestselling book "The River of Doubt," (2006) by Candice Millard. Another Bain/LOC portrait of T. R., taken at the same time but filed out of sequence:

Thank you Wystan, for providing the context of this image --Roosevelt's return from South America. We will add some of the information to the description when we update.

June 1914. Here is a photo of Roosevelt with Harry Houdini on board: www.examiner.com/ny-in-new-york/houdini-and-theodore-roos... Roosevelt was recovering from malaria at the time and still had a bullet in his chest from an assassination attempt a couple years earlier. The Imperator was plagued by stability problems, fires, an overly complicated propulsion system, and a four year layup during WWI. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Imperator

The unstoppable TR occupied the royal (or imperial) suite on the German ship, Imperator, returning from a quickie trip to Europe. (The Imperator docked at Hoboken, NJ, on June 24, 1914.) Earlier in the year, Roosevelt had returned from an arduous trip through South America, where he had nearly died while exploring the Amazon jungle. New York Times interview with TR aboard the Imperator, June 24, 1914: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9D01E0DA1F39E6...

Wystan & Jim Rees, Thanks for the further information on Roosevelt's trip on the Imperator. We will add more detail to this description when we update the record.

woah! great shot!