1914 Teddy Roosevelt Group
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GUEST:
This hat was given to my ancestor by Teddy Roosevelt, and this cartoon was drawn about my ancestor resigning from the election.
APPRAISER:
You have this cartoon of your ancestor whose name is Jonas Van Duzer, and I did look him up and he was active in Republican Party politics in the late 19th and early 20th century. He ran for the State Assembly a couple of times, never won, but he was still an active party member. But apparently, in 1912, when Teddy Roosevelt broke away from the Republican Party, because he was very frustrated with all of the internal fighting and the rightward drift of the Republican Party, he broke away, did form his own party, the Progressive Party or the Bull Moose Party. Your ancestor followed him, left the Republican Party, which would have been a very big deal, and then campaigned as a Progressive or a Bull Moose Party. So as a member of the Bull Moose Party, Teddy Roosevelt gives your ancestor this hat, and you can see your ancestor wearing the hat in the photograph-- that's a piece of campaign material. And it says, "Jonas Van Duzer for Congress." So Roosevelt runs for president in 1912. He does not win. The party is not successful, but it also doesn't die. It continues for a few more election cycles. So here is the hat, and it actually has the gift presentation. So it says, "T.R. to J.V.D.," so Teddy Roosevelt to...
GUEST:
Jonas.
APPRAISER:
Jonas Van Duzer, and the cartoon, it's a 1914, so it's, it's from his election for Congress, which he doesn't win. Only five out of 138 people were elected from this party. The cartoon is by a man named Zimmerman, who was a popular political cartoonist of the day, and it's a caricature of your ancestor and the fact that he's hanging up his hat. He's dropping out of the race, he's bidding adieu, but he still has the chip on his shoulder, which is the chip the Progressives had when they left the Republican Party. It is one of these groups that is greater than the sum of its parts, right? For the group, I would put an auction estimate of $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm, wow.
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