New AI-powered library lets people meet Theodore Roosevelt in a whole new way

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened to the public on July 4.   

He led the Rough Riders, became the youngest U.S. president and inspired the teddy bear — but Theodore Roosevelt probably never imagined anything like this. His new presidential library gives visitors a fresh peek into history and even lets them chat with a lifelike version of himself.

Located in Medora, North Dakota, the unassuming building is covered in native grasses, with skylights providing most of the light. But in addition to the expected re-creations of the president’s home and White House, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, which opened to the public on July 4, is designed as a “living library” powered by AI.

A system that organizes and reconstructs hundreds of thousands of historical documents allows visitors — both onsite and online — to search, explore and interact with the frontier legend and his writings in entirely new ways.

“This is technology-forward, to present the information and to help people explore Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy and help people learn from some of the things he experienced throughout his life,” says Laura Hoffman, senior director of Microsoft’s AI For Good Lab.

Microsoft helped create the technology that powers the knowledge base backbone of the museum, called Box 1. Archivists uploaded hundreds of thousands of archival documents to Box 1, using AI to organize, enrich and reconstruct fragmented materials into searchable, contextualized historical records.

“Theodore Roosevelt left behind one of the richest written records of any American president, and for more than a century it sat in 32 separate collections across 18 institutions — readable only by people who could reach the archive and knew where to look,” says Matt Briney, the library’s chief communications officer.

“Pairing that record with AI changes what’s possible,” Briney says. “Now anyone can ask a question in everyday language and get Roosevelt’s actual documents in response.”