The New International Encyclopædia/Roosevelt, Robert Barnwell

770595The New International Encyclopædia — Roosevelt, Robert Barnwell

ROOSEVELT, Robert Barnwell (1829—). An American author and reformer. He was born in New York City, and was the son of Nicholas van Schaick Roosevelt and an uncle of Theodore Roosevelt. He was admitted to the bar in 1850, and practiced with success for many years. In 1867 he brought about the formation of the New York State Fishery Commission, and until 1888, when he became United States Minister to Holland, was one of its commissioners. He first entered active politics as an opponent of the Tweed ‘Ring,’ and as an organizer of the ‘Committee of Seventy,’ as vice-president of the Reform Club, and as an editor of the Citizen, he did much to break up that organization. In 1870 he was elected to the lower House of Congress, and served there with credit. He published: The Game Birds of North America (1860); The Game Birds of the North (1860); Superior Fishing (1866); Florida and the Game Water Birds (1868); and Progressive Petticoats (1871).