Story · A CLOSER LOOK

The speech after the shooting

Milwaukee · October 14, 1912

ABOUT THIS STORY

While campaigning in Milwaukee, Roosevelt was shot before a scheduled address. He proceeded to speak before receiving medical treatment. The shirt and the objects that slowed the bullet connect this often-retold episode to physical evidence.

They help separate the documented episode from the shorthand in which it is often retold.

October 14, 1912 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin

How it unfolded.

Theodore Roosevelt →

October 14, 1912
The speech after the shooting
Roosevelt continued to his campaign address after being shot.

A CLOSER LOOK

The story behind it.

Roosevelt continued to his campaign address after being shot.

The bullet and the speech

In Milwaukee in 1912, a bullet passed through Roosevelt’s folded speech and eyeglass case before entering his chest. He proceeded to deliver the address before receiving hospital treatment.

The opening announcement

Roosevelt told the audience he had been shot. The event survives through his words, contemporary reporting, and the objects associated with the shooting.

START HERE

NPS · the 1912 episode

Source for The speech after the shooting: NPS · the 1912 episode.

Sources for this closer look

NPS · the 1912 episode

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NPS · the 1912 episode

Sources & credits

Introductions are grounded in the sources below. Collection notes and reading prompts provide an editorial starting point; personal opinions are identified in the collection’s content.

NPS · the 1912 episode Roosevelt in Milwaukee earlier on October 14, 1912 · Wikimedia Commons