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Photograph of Theodore Roosevelt inscribed and signed: "To A.R. Keen, with Warm Regards, from His Friend Theodore Roosevelt. Photograph taken by Pach Brothers in New York and apparently trimmed to oval shape (8 1/2 in. x 11 in.) before being affixed atop a grey, Pach Brothers matte. Photo appears signed after mounting since a trace of TR's signature as evidenced by a trace of the signature having spilled over onto the matte. Mr. Keen's name now appears faded and readable with some difficulty (as if someone may have tried rub it out), but it is still quite discernable under the right light. Albert R. Keen (1860-1927) was a prominent hotelier who had managed Lamb's Club (eventually incarnating as Keen's English Chop House in the old theater district in New York and now, still, Keen's Steakhouse, famous for its roast mutton chops), and both the Marie Antoinette Hotel at W. 66th and Broadway and the Manhanset House on Shelter Island, New York. Previously he worked as a conductor on a Pullman sleeper between New Orleans and Denver, and afterwards it was said managed an establishment in Atlanta. The photograph of then Vice-President Roosevelt (a position he held for only 194 days before being sworn-in as President after the assassination of William McKinley) was in response to a letter from A.R. Keen, requesting a signed photograph. "In 1885, when Albert Keen opened his restaurant and saloon, now known as Keens Steakhouse, the destination has provided post-dinner pipes to the likes of Babe Ruth, Theodore Roosevelt and Buffalo Bill Cody. Keen, who managed the acting and literary society called the Lamb's Club, a theater-related establishment on West 36th Street, in what was then the theater district, opened up his self-named restaurant next door. ( "A Pipe Dream Comes to Life", Bill Schulz, New York Times, March 2, 2012). Theodore Roosevelt's Churchwarden pipe is still displayed on the ceiling at Keen's Steakhouse. "The Pach Brothers was a family-run photography studio led by German-born brothers Gustavus (1848-1904) and Gotthelf (1852-1925) Pach. The brothers photographed portraits of many notable figures, such as President Benjamin Harrison and American banker George Foster Peabody. Gotthelf Pach is the father of famed German-American painter Walter Pach. Patrons included famous and ordinary Americans involved in business, politics, government, medicine, law, education, and the arts, as well as thousands of students, families and children who sat for Pach cameras from 1866 onward. There was a fire in 1895,which destroyed their New York studio and processing rooms as well as their entire negative archive. The Pach Brothers firm continued photographing for another hundred years until their dissolution in 1994." (Wikipedia).
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