What Teddy Roosevelt’s New Library Can Teach Us About America

Hilary Hamm’s remarks from the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library remind us that democracy is a living experiment—and that citizenship requires our active participation.

On America’s 250th birthday, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened its doors in Medora, North Dakota. The Library arrived more than a century after Roosevelt’s death, not simply to preserve a president’s legacy, but to ask what that legacy requires of us now.

In Assembly Notes, we want what Teddy Roosevelt championed: helping move more and more of us into the arena. We get there by wrestling with how history speaks to the present, how democracy demands delivery of its promises in people’s lives, and how citizenship must be practiced, not merely admired.

I recently met Hilary Hamm, Chair of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Board, at a conference about the role of philanthropy in this fraught moment. In our conversations, I was struck by her clarity of vision, a sharp insight that also illuminates the Library’s purpose. I serve on the board of the LBJ Presidential Library, and the Obama Presidential Library recently opened as well. These institutions are not monuments to flawless figures. At their core, they exist to examine leadership honestly, to confront contradiction, and to invite Americans back into the work of public life.

As threats to American democracy threaten our shared enterprise of freedom, this work feels especially urgent now. At a time when cynicism is easy and disengagement can feel justified, Hilary’s words remind us that democracy is not a static inheritance. It is a living experiment, shaped by what we are willing to do, protect, build and repair.

As part of expanding what Assembly Notes can be, I will occasionally use this space to welcome voices that challenge us to think more deeply about democracy, power, history and responsibility. I am grateful to begin with Hilary Hamm’s remarks from the opening of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.

Her speech is below.

Photo by Smithsonian on Unsplash

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Good morning, everyone, and welcome.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, thank you for being here for this historic day.

Today, on our nation’s 250th birthday, we gather for the opening of a presidential library unlike any other. It is a rare thing to open a presidential library for a leader who has been gone for 107 years. Most presidential libraries are built to preserve the immediate past. This one is different. We are not here simply because Theodore Roosevelt belongs to history. We are here because his life and legacy still have something to teach us today.

And, after more than a century, we have had the time to study that legacy. To admire his courage, but also to confront his contradictions. Not every part of Theodore Roosevelt’s life was simple or admirable. But history does not ask us to look away from complexity; it demands that we look more closely.

That is exactly why this institution matters. We did not build a hall of flawless heroes or a place to sanitize the past or smooth over its rough edges. We built a Library that asks us to confront history honestly, to learn from it fully, and to ask what it requires of us now.

At the heart of this library are three core pillars: leadership, citizenship, and conservation. But not as slogans or as settled answers. As living questions.

• What does leadership require of us in moments of consequence?

• What does citizenship ask of us beyond watching, criticizing, or standing on the sidelines?

• And what does conservation mean when we are called not only to admire the natural world, but to protect and steward it?

These are the questions Theodore Roosevelt wrestled with in his own time. They are the questions this Library invites all of us to wrestle with in ours.

At a time when many Americans feel disconnected from public life, discouraged by our politics, or uncertain about the role they can play in our democracy, this Library stands as a call back to engagement. It reminds us that our country is not a static inheritance we passively preserve. It is a living experiment that we, as citizens, must actively shape every single day. It requires our attention and participation.

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library is not here only to preserve a legacy. It is here to make that legacy useful. It is here to invite students, families, scholars, visitors, and citizens from across the country to encounter history, nature, and themselves in a new way.

We hope every person who walks through these doors leaves not only knowing more about Roosevelt but asking more of themselves. That is the promise of this place.

There are moments in the life of an institution when years of belief, work, and sacrifice become real.

This is one of those moments.

Today, in the Badlands that shaped Theodore Roosevelt, we open the doors to a place more than a century in the making.

At a time when cynicism can feel easier than service, this place stands as an invitation.

• To lead with courage.

• To practice citizenship with purpose.

• To steward the land entrusted to our care.

And to ask, again and again, what our democracy requires of us.

For those who have carried this dream for years, today may feel like a finish line. But really, it’s just the beginning. Today is the day this Library begins its work in the life of our nation.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, and on behalf of everyone who has been in this arena with us, it is my profound honor to declare the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library officially open.