Teddy Roosevelt's Country Life Commission

President Teddy Roosevelt believed that rural America was the "backbone of our nation's efficiency," but that rural life risked being left behind in the modern America emerging in the first decade of the 20th century. In 1908, he formed a Commission on Country Life, headed up by Liberty Hyde Bailey, to investigate ways of making country life more attractive. The 1909 Report of the Country Life Commission highlighted a list of "deficiencies" in rural life that were prompting people to leave the country for the city, but had few concrete recommendations for remedying the situation. One hundred years later, just about all of those "deficiencies" still plague rural America, and people are still leaving country for the city. Despite its apparent lack of results, however, the Report remains a landmark for the attention it brought to issues of country life, and it remains an inspiration for for our Rural West Initiative.

For more on the Country Life Commision, see:

The full text of the 1909 Report of the Country Life Commission

Liberty Hyde Bailey: A Man for All Seasons: An Exhibition of the Cornell University Library Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections which includes information on Liberty Hyde Bailey, who was the Chair of the Commission on Country Life, as well as photos and documents pertaining to the Commission.

Teddy Roosevelt's Country Life Commission Centennial 1909-2009: An online resource from the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs celebrating the 100th anniversary of the commission, with links and articles about the Commission, the Report, and the individual members of the Commission.

Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Country Life Movement in the United States, New York: The McMillan Company (1915).

Articles from Agricultural History

Scott J. Peters and Paul A. Morgan, "The Country Life Commission: Reconsidering a Milestone in American Agricultural History." Agricultural History, Vol. 78, No. 3 (Summer, 2004), pp. 289-316. http://www.jstor.org/stable/374470

Olaf F. Larson and Thomas B. Jones, "The Unpublished Data from Roosevelt's Commission on Country Life." Agricultural History, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Oct., 1976), pp. 583-599. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741303

William L. Bowers, "Country-Life Reform, 1900-1920: A Neglected Aspect of Progressive Era History." Agricultural History, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Jul., 1971), pp. 211-221. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741982

Clayton S. Ellsworth, "Theodore Roosevelt's Country Life Commission." Agricultural History, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Oct., 1960), pp. 155-172. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3741109

Photo Credits:

• "The Country Life Commission, which visited Ithaca on December 16, 1908." Photograph published in The Cornell Countryman, December 1913. Courtesy of the Division of Rare Books and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
  http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/bailey/commission/commission_4.html#
  
• "President Roosevelt near Glenwood Springs" c. 1900 or 1905. Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, Harry C. Stewart, X-22192. Courtesy of the Division of Rare Books and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
  http://photoswest.org:8080/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?fullRecord+31452+594+623652000+1+0
  
• "Liberty Hyde Bailey at 3 East Avenue, 1900" from the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium Collection
  http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/bailey/introduction/introduction_4.html#