Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, 1903 Taken in 1903, this photograph pictures President Theodore Roosevelt and his associates standing in front of the “Grizzly Giant,” a towering sequoia tree over 200 feet in height in Yosemite National Park, California. Roosevelt is in the center, and standing to his front left is John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, who convinced Roosevelt to place Yosemite under federal control and establish it as a national park in 1906. Also shown in this photo from left to right are an unidentified secret serviceman; William H. Moody, secretary of the navy; George Pardee, governor of California; Presley Marion Rixey, White House physician; Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University; William Loeb, Roosevelt’s personal secretary; and Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University of California.

Houghton Library, Harvard University, call no. 560.51 1903-115