Tannery Pond Center presents our Tannery Talk: The Wild Life of Theodore Roosevelt by Connor Williams
May 18 | 2 PM
Suggested donation at the door: $10
Theodore Roosevelt ranks amongst the most mythologized Presidents in our history. Many Americans have some sense of the Rough Riders, the origins of the Teddy Bear, his time cattle ranching, and other enduring larger-than-life stories. And many Adirondackers know that Roosevelt was atop Mount Marcy at the most consequential moment of his life.
But what brought him to Mount Marcy in September 1901, anyways? What roles did the Adirondacks (and nature more broadly) play in Roosevelt's life? How did his actual relationship with nature inform his actual worldview, and how has his worldview informed our present?
On Sunday, May 18, join American Historian (and year round Adirondacker) Connor Williams for "The Wild Life of Theodore Roosevelt." Williams will trace Roosevelt's lifelong relationship with nature, paying especially close attention to those moments that intersected with the Adirondack past. After approximately 45 minutes of a talk that contains equal parts historical lecture and campfire story, Williams will welcome as many questions as the audience cares to ask.
Connor Williams is a formally trained historian with more than two decades of researching, teaching, and writing about the past. A native of Saratoga County, Williams grew up visiting the Adirondacks and hiking the High Peaks. His love for nature brought him to Middlebury College for his undergraduate degree, and his love for history brought him to Dartmouth and Yale for advanced study. From 2021 to 2022, Williams served the United States Congress as Lead Historian for its "Naming Commission” , the body tasked with identifying and changing Confederate Commemorations throughout the Department of Defense. His book about those experiences --A Promise Delivered: Ten American Heroes and the Battle to Rename Our Nation's Bases -- will be released on November 11, 2025.
In 2023 Williams began working as Chief Historian at Great Camp Sagamore, where he shares Adirondack history and national history through a series of day tours and multi day programs. He also teaches at Middlebury College, and writes, speaks, teaches and consults for organizations throughout the nation.