Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library will open on July 4 in Medora, North Dakota, bringing an interactive AI-powered Theodore Roosevelt avatar to the Badlands. The 96,000-square-foot library and museum sits on a butte west of Medora overlooking the Missouri River and Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Visitors will be able to talk with the avatar in PG-rated conversations. The exhibit was trained on 400,000 archival documents, and the library’s searchable repository is available on site and online.
Laura Hoffman on the digital exhibit
Laura Hoffman, senior director and program manager at Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, said people can “not only connect with the written words of a historical figure but also gain a sense of their personality through human dynamics such as vocal intonation, body language and mannerisms.” The Roosevelt avatar follows that approach with a fast-talking, energetic voice, wire-rim spectacles, a cream waistcoat with a gold watch chain and a trademark mustache.
Michael Cullinane on accuracy
Michael Cullinane, senior historian for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library Foundation, said, “It is not perfect, it is not Theodore Roosevelt, but it gets many things right,” adding a caution that sits beside the exhibit’s lifelike presentation. The project puts a historical likeness inside a physical museum, while Microsoft AI technology helped organize hundreds of thousands of archival documents for search.
Theodore Roosevelt in the archive
Roosevelt’s words also appear inside the experience. In one excerpt, he said, “Sometimes I’d take off for a long tramp with just one aide and a walking stick, ducking away from the buzzing city. That’s how I kept my head clear, even when the world pressed in on all sides,” a line that reflects the voice the avatar is designed to reproduce. The library opens as a $450 million institution combining physical display space with digital access to the archive.
For visitors, the immediate draw is not just the building in the Badlands but the ability to ask questions and search documents in the same visit. The open question is how closely the avatar will match Roosevelt in practice once the July 4 opening begins.
