On July 4, coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, Edward O’Keefe threw open the doors to the newest presidential library: the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota.
On Wednesday, O’Keefe, the CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation and author of The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created a President, shared that planning process with hundreds of attendees at the White House Historical Association’s 2026 Presidential Sites Summit. O’Keefe sat down with East Wing Magazine and spoke about the wife of the 26th president, First Lady Edith Roosevelt, and her narrative at the new site.
In planning the library, O’Keefe says, they paid particular attention, not just to the story of Theodore Roosevelt, but to the extraordinary family and women who supported “T.R.” And they did so, he adds, in a way that brought her influence to life.
