ROOSEVELT, THEODORE. (1858-1919). Historian, naturalist, 26th President (1901-1909), and first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1906). Autograph Photograph Inscribed as President, “W.W. Luffkin [sic] Esq. with the regards of Theodore Roosevelt.” Washington D.C., “Feb. 20th 1907.”

Willfred Weymouth Lufkin (1879-1934) was a budding politician serving as private secretary to Massachusetts Congressman Augustus P. Gardner when Roosevelt signed and inscribed this photograph. During his Presidency, Roosevelt built on William McKinley’s use of the press, making the White House the center of news each day through interviews and photo opportunities. A young Republican, Lufkin was no doubt impressed by the nation’s youngest President and the myriad of reforms that the ‘trustbuster’ pursued during his political career. A lifelong politician, Lufkin was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of his mentor, Augustus P. Gardner, and served from November 6, 1917, to June 30, 1921. That year, he resigned to accept an appointment by President Warren G. Harding to be collector of customs at the port of Boston, a position he held until his retirement from politics in 1933.

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