Then the children sang America the Beautiful and two students from Oyster Bay High School played taps. The Presidential wreath was presented by CDR Creighton Ho and LT Jerrad Denney who are both stationed on Long Island. A wreath was presented by Jonathan and Shannon on behalf of Sagamore Hill (thank you to FOSH for paying for the wreath). He told us that a wreath-laying ceremony has been going on since 1919 and local school children have long been part of the ceremony. Hammond welcomed everyone including four busloads of second-grade students from the Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School. He introduced representatives from the Oyster Bay Schools, members of the American Legion from Bayville and Oyster Bay, two members of the US Navy, and Superintendent Jonathan Parker and Acting Chief of Interpretation Shannon McLucas representing Sagamore Hill. Oyster Bay Town Historian John Hammond presided over this annual event. October 27 dawned gray and blustery, but it did not diminish the spirits of all those attending the wreath-laying ceremony on Theodore Roosevelt’s grave in Youngs Memorial Cemetery in Oyster Bay Cove to mark his 163rd birthday. Once the statue is relocated, the Roosevelt family and the Presidential Library staff, “will also establish an advisory council composed of representatives of Indigenous and Black people, as well as historians, scholars, and artists to determine how to recontextualize the statue.” Theodore Roosevelt V, TR’s great-great-grandson, issued this statement supportive of the statue’s relocation: “It is fitting that the statue is being relocated to a place where its composition can be recontextualized to facilitate difficult, complex and inclusive discussions.” In recent years, public protests over its colonialist symbolism resulted in a decision to remove the statue. The statue is on loan from the Museum, its use subject to approval by New York City’s Public Design Commission. (See the Superintendent’s remarks below.)Īn update on the situation involving the removal of the statue of TR that stood at the entrance to the Museum of Natural History is detailed in an article in The New York Times on November 20, 2021: "Roosevelt Statue to Head to Presidential Library in North Dakota." Designed by American sculptor James Earle Fraser, the bronze statue of Roosevelt flanked by a Native American and an African man will be relocated to the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota. Erin Whittaker, the new permanent Chief of Interpretation, will be arriving in early December, and the Park staff will be scheduling meetings with volunteers in the early part of 2022, to provide more concrete information on planning for the new year as circumstances in the current environment evolve. We extend our thanks to Shannon and wish her all the best as she returns to her home park at Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine and Hampton National Historic Site in Maryland. During Shannon’s brief tenure, she worked with staff to offer a variety of outdoor programs, and she helped develop plans for the eventual expanded house tour schedule, for re-orientation programs for returning volunteers, and for how the Old Orchard Museum might eventually be accessed by the public given continuing COVID restrictions on occupancy. As we move into Fall, 2021, we continue to witness changes at Sagamore Hill – changes that include the removal of the old Visitors Center and the pollinator garden but also the departure of our seasonal rangers, John Fetter and Bill Wallace and Shannon McLucas, Acting Chief of Interpretation.
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