Edith also continued and improved the China Collection started by Caroline Harrison and initiated a portrait gallery so that all President's wives could have memorials in the White House. This began the tradition of each First Lady having an official portrait made along with the President, which would remain after the President and First Lady left the White House.
When Edith Roosevelt left the White House in 1909, public opinion was almost unanimously in her favor. Archibald Butt, the President's aide, said that she left the White House "without making a mistake." One word of criticism came from a famous woman quoted in a national magazine as saying that Edith Roosevelt "dresses on 300 dollars a year and looks it." Edith was amused and placed the article in her scrapbook.
Theodore Roosevelt died in 1919. Edith lived quietly until 1948. She saw three of her four sons die in wartime. Her youngest, Quentin, a young pilot, was shot down in World War I. Kermit died on active duty in Alaska in 1943. And Theodore, Jr., died in July 1944 in Normandy, France. He was an assistant division commander, and the highest ranking officer to land in the first wave of D-Day, where he won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Archie won the Croix de Guerre in World War I, and served again in World War II being wounded and discharged as disabled.
Edith Roosevelt did much to change the role of First Lady and the White House. She had a great influence on the politics of her day, and yet is not a popular figure in history. It is easy to see why she was overshadowed by her energetic husband who enjoyed being in the headlines much more than did his wife. But her desire for privacy should not cause us to forget the accomplishments and contributions of this remarkable woman.
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