WASHINGTON, DC.- The Library of Congress has acquired a bound volume containing 15 tipped-in pages of a stenographic version of Theodore Roosevelt's Milwaukee, Wisconsin, speech of Oct. 14, 1912. The pages record the speech Roosevelt delivered from the auditorium stage after receiving a gunshot wound from attempted assassin John Schrank outside the Gilpatrick Hotel.

This copy of Elbert Martin's typed stenographic version of Roosevelt's speech contains numerous penciled emendations and alterations to the text made by Roosevelt himself. When Roosevelt made the changes, and for what purpose or publication, are not currently known. (The holes that are visible on the first two pages of the document are unrelated to the assassination attempt and are not bullet holes.)

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was a former U.S. president and then-presidential candidate. Elbert E. Martin (1881-1956) served as Roosevelt's stenographer. The Theodore Roosevelt Papers in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division currently do not contain any version of the speech Roosevelt delivered on Oct. 14, 1912. This acquisition fills that gap with a document bearing penciled alterations in Roosevelt's own hand.

“The assassination attempt and Roosevelt's ‘it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose’ response to his wounding represents a famous episode in Theodore Roosevelt's noteworthy life, and this version of his speech offers another medium through which to explore the significance of events in Milwaukee in the context of the 1912 election and Roosevelt's legacy,” said Michelle A. Krowl, curator of the Theodore Roosevelt Papers.

These alterations offer unique research value in potentially identifying Roosevelt's purpose in amending the stenographic version of his remarks as delivered, and in evaluating the textual and stylistic changes Roosevelt proposed against other published editions of the speech.

This item complements other Library materials related to the October 1912 assassination attempt, including Roosevelt's telegraphed reassurance to his wife, Edith, in the Kermit Roosevelt and Belle Roosevelt Papers in the Manuscript Division; photographs of the attempted assassin and of an X-ray of the bullet lodged in Roosevelt's chest in the Prints and Photographs Division; and newspaper coverage available through the Chronicling America digitized historic newspaper site hosted by the Library of Congress.

The manuscript was purchased through the James Madison Council's Edwin L. Cox Legacy Trust, which serves as a permanent endowment to support the acquisition of a wide range of Americana materials for the Library of Congress.