The following is a guest post by Matt McCrady, Digital Conversion Specialist for the Library of Congress.
Recently, Katherine McKeown donated a collection of scrapbooks and photographs originally compiled by Stuart Ellison McKeown to the Veterans History Project. Stuart McKeown was a member of the 95th Aero Squadron during World War I. These records offer a unique perspective on the experiences of the men of the 95th and include two rare photographs of young Quentin Roosevelt.
Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of Theodore and Edith Roosevelt, volunteered soon after the United States entered World War I in April 1917. His aptitude for engineering and his fascination with flight led him to the nascent United States Army Air Service. He soon found himself in the 95th Aero Squadron, First Pursuit Group, along with Stuart McKeown. While McKeown survived the war, Roosevelt unfortunately became a casualty, shot down over France in 1918.
One of the photos in McKeown’s scrapbook (displayed at the top of this post) shows Roosevelt standing bareheaded alongside his comrade George E. Turnure Jr, a fellow airman. Roosevelt grins the inherited toothy grin of his father. He is twenty years old and ready to be ‘the man in the arena,’ as his father had written.
The second new image shows Roosevelt with a French pilot, identified in the scrapbook as Max Benoit. At Issoudun’s Third Aviation Instruction Center, American trainees like Roosevelt and McKeown initially learned under veteran front-line pilots, Frenchmen who had been flying missions since the first day of the conflict in 1914. Another photo in McKeown’s scrapbook depicts a public memorial to the celebrated French ace, Georges Guynemer, who was reported missing in action September 11, 1917.
Guynemer and Eddie Rickenbacker were the heroic figures that Roosevelt’s cohort measured themselves against. Images in the scrapbook of dashing young men posing with their aircraft convey bravado while giving little hint of the danger they faced in the air.
The McKeown scrapbook also contains rare snapshots of aerial combat captured by the pilots themselves, including a smoking plane descending to the ground, and the crushed remains of biplanes, smashed up in trees and in fields. One such photo shows McKeown’s wrecked plane. After a crash landing, McKeown was captured by German forces and spent the remaining months of the war as a POW.
Were McKeown and Roosevelt acquainted, as seems likely, they probably knew each other only a short time. For most of his time overseas, Roosevelt was behind the lines in various non-combat roles, much to his frustration. His own flight training, in the winter of 1917-’18, was particularly grueling.
Finally, in early June 1918, Roosevelt was ordered to the front to join the 1st Pursuit Group.
“At last, almost eleven months after I left the states, I’m doing what I came over here for…” he wrote.[1] Within a month, he would be dead, shot down on July 14 (Bastille Day) in a battle above the Marne River valley.
The McKeown scrapbook contains many unidentified aviators with little description, leaving room for discovery. The Veterans History Project invites amateur sleuths and professional researchers alike to carefully peruse these albums and make some discoveries of their own. Perhaps you will find a previously unknown photo of Quentin Roosevelt, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker or other airmen of the 95th Aero Squadron.
As the Veterans History Project celebrates its 25th anniversary, we reflect on the extraordinary collection of narratives and artifacts that have been entrusted to us over the years. These stories, told through interviews, letters, photographs and personal mementos, form a powerful record of military service and sacrifice across generations.
To honor this milestone, we are sharing a 25-part blog series highlighting the voices of veterans, the individuals who shaped and sustained the Project and the deep impact these stories continue to have on families, researchers and communities nationwide.
[1] Quentin Roosevelt: A Sketch With Letters, Ed. Kermit Roosevelt, 1921. Pg. 143 https.://archive.org/details/quentinroosevelt00roo/page/148/mode/2up