Skip to main content

Primary sourceDocumentOctober 1880

Roosevelt Marriage Certificate

City of Newton, Massachusetts · October 1880

The 1880 certificate recording Theodore Roosevelt's marriage to Alice Hathaway Lee, his first wife, who died four years later.

Records Roosevelt's 1880 marriage to Alice Hathaway Lee, his first wife.

Ask Theodore Roosevelt about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Scan of a Newton, Massachusetts Certificate of Marriage dated 1880, with red title text, a red City of Newton seal, handwritten entries for the parties, and printed legal notice at the bottom. A green watermark reading Marriage Certificate overlays the document.
Certificate of Marriage of Theodore Roosevelt and Alice H. Lee, Newton, October 1880. Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library.

About this source

What it is

An official certificate of marriage issued by the City of Newton, Massachusetts, dated October 1880, recording the marriage of Theodore Roosevelt and Alice Hathaway Lee. It is held in the Alice Roosevelt Longworth family papers at Houghton Library, Harvard.

Why it matters

This document marks the beginning of Roosevelt's first marriage, which the curator's note explains ended in tragedy only four years later. Official records like this one show how even major life events of historical figures were recorded through the same bureaucratic process as anyone else's.

Look closer

  • What information does this certificate record, and what does it leave out about the people involved?
  • Why might parts of the handwritten document be illegible today?
  • What does the legal language at the bottom tell you about how marriages were officially processed in 1880?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Theodore Roosevelt on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Theodore Roosevelt sources

Meet the AI Theodore Roosevelt →
Sepia stereograph card showing two side-by-side photographs of a man in a campaign hat and military-style jacket standing beside a tent pole, with a canvas tent and a seated man behind him. Caption reads: Theodore Roosevelt as a Rough-Rider at Tampa, Florida.Photograph

Primary source

Theodore Roosevelt as a Rough Rider at Tampa, Florida

American Stereoscopic Company · c. 1898-1903

Scanned page numbered 33 of printed text in a serif typeface on cream paper, containing part of Roosevelt's message discussing the Monroe Doctrine, the Hague conference, Latin American nations, and the Caribbean Sea. Marginal labels read Arbitration treaties, Second Hague conference, and Policy toward other nations of Western Hemisphere.Speech

Primary source

Theodore Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

Theodore Roosevelt · 6 December 1904

Document

Primary source

Pure Food and Drug Act

1906

Sepia photograph of a large elephant lying on its side on forest floor, with long tusks visible. A standing man in a wide-brimmed hat and light shirt stands behind it among dense jungle foliage.Photograph

Primary source

Theodore Roosevelt with the Bull Elephant He Killed

Edmund Heller

Speech

Primary source

The Man with the Muck Rake

Theodore Roosevelt · 1906

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Theodore Roosevelt now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions