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Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (1858-1919), African Safari & Scientific Expedition (April 21, 1909 to March 14, 1910)
Theodore Roosevelt in Africa in his hunting costume
Theodore Roosevelt, the safari expedition
Theodore Roosevelt, the great white hunter
“The hunter who wanders through these lands sees sights which ever afterward remain fixed in his mind... Apart from this, yet mingled with it, is the strong attraction of the silent places, of the large tropic moons, and the splendor of the new stars; where the wanderer sees the awful glory of sunrise and sunset in the wide waste spaces of the earth, unworn of man, and changed only by the slow change of the ages through time everlasting.”
Col. Theodore Roosevelt in Khartoum, March 15, 1910
Map of safari expedition
Map of safari expedition
Theodore Roosevelt - African Safari & Scientific Expedition
Of the rifles, he chose the 1895 lever-action in 30-03 U.S. as well as a .405 Winchester and both were the highlighted calibers for his African Expedition. Theodore Roosevelt ended up having 15 wooden crates full of Winchesters rifles, ammunition and spare parts for his expedition from Winchester Reapeating Arms Co.
Some of Theodore Roosevelt baggage and equipment for safari expedition
Theodore Roosevelt on the bank of the nile arranging transport
Theodore Roosevelt, porters at the start of the expedition
Theodore Roosevelt inspecting rifle with Kermit Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt with Kermit Roosevelt in Kenya
The camping ground at Wapiti Plains in East Africa, Kenya
Theodore Roosevelt in front of his tent
Expedition Members
Newland & Tarlton, outfitters
R.J. Cunninghame, leader
Leslie J. Tarlton, adjutant
Edmund Heller, zoologist, age 34
J. Alden Loring, zoologist, age 38
Edgar A. Means, physician, age 52
Kermit Roosevelt, photographer, age 21
Theodore Roosevelt, bwana, age 50
Hunting Licenses
50gbp, 50 animals/hunter
17gbp, extra bull elephant
5gbp, extra giraffe, rhino, or eland
3gbp, extra antelope
2gbp, extra wildebeest
2gbp, extra waterbuck
Expedition Costs
$50,000 from Smithsonian Museum appeal
$25,000 from Theodore Roosevelt
$25,000 from Andrew Carnegie
2005 equivalent = appx. $1.8 million dollars
Game List
• Lion = 9
• Hyena = 5
• Elephant = 8
• Rhinoceros = 5 (square mouth)
• Rhinoceros = 8 (hook lipped)
• Hippopotamus = 7
• Warthog = 8
• Zebra (common) = 15
• Zebra (big) = 5
• Giraffe = 7
• Buffalo = 6
• Eland (giant) = 1
• Eland (common) = 5
• Bushbuck =2 (East African)
• Bushbuck = 1 (Ugandan)
• Bushbuck = 3 (Nile)
• Roan = 4
• Oryx = 10
• Wildebeest = 5
• Hartebeest = 10 (Coke's)
• Hartebeest = 14 (Jackson's)
• Hartebeest = 1 (Ugandan)
• Hartebeest = 8 (Nilotic)
• Topi = 12
• Waterbuck = 5 (common)
• Waterbuck = 6 (singsing)
• Python = 3
• Kob = 10 (common)
• Kob = 1 (Vaughan's)
• Kob = 3 (white eared)
• Lechwe = 3 (saddlebacked)
• Redbuck (bohor) = 10
• Buck (Chanler's) = 3
• Impalla = 7
• Gazelle (Granti) = 5
• Gazelle (Robertsi) = 4
• Gazelle (Notata) = 8
• Gazelle = 11 (Thompson's)
• Gerenuk = 3
• Klipspringer = 1
• Oribi = 18
• Duiker = 3
• Steinbuck = 4
• Dikdik = 1
• Monkey = 1 (red ground)
• Monkey = 5 (black and white ground)
• Ostrich = 2
• Bustard (Greater) = 4
• Bustard (Lesser) = 1
• Crane (kavirondo) = 2
• Stork (whale head) = 1
• Marabou = 1
• Stork (saddle bill) = 2
• Stork (ibis) = 1
• Pelican = 5
• Guinea fowl = 1
• Crocodile = 1
Theodore Roosevelt on the Wapiti Plains
Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt on the Kapiti plains
Theodore Roosevelt and the lion
Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt with elands
Black rhino
Shot rhino
Theodore Roosevelt with black rhino
Theodore Roosevelt and his prize rhino
Theodore Roosevelt with rhino and bustard
Theodore Roosevelt with rhino and bustard shot from rhino
Towing the hippo shot by Theodore Roosevelt
Dragging hippo out of the water
Landing the hippo shot by Theodore Roosevelt
Rolling out the hippo
The dead hippo
Theodore Roosevelt with hippo and bwana Engozi (Judd)
Theodore Roosevelt, towing the big bull hippo, Lake Naivasha
Bringing the big bull hippo to shore
Theodore Roosevelt big bull hippo
Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist looking for the bullet in the hippo's skull
In March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left New York for a safari in east and central Africa. Roosevelt's party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) before following the Nile up to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Financed by Andrew Carnegie and by his own proposed writings, Roosevelt's party hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The group included scientists from the Smithsonian and was led by the legendary hunter-tracker R.J. Cunninghame and was joined from time to time by Frederick Selous, the famous big game hunter and explorer. Among other items, Roosevelt brought with him four tons of salt for preserving animal hides, a lucky rabbit's foot given to him by boxer John L. Sullivan, an elephant-rifle donated by a group of 56 admiring Britons, and the famous Pigskin Library, a collection of classics bound in pig leather and transported in a single reinforced trunk.
All told, Roosevelt and his companions killed or trapped over 11,397 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. These included 512 big game animals, including six rare white rhinos. The expedition consumed 262 of the animals. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington; the quantity was so large that it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian was able to share many duplicate animals with other museums.
Regarding the large number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, "I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned." However, although the safari was ostensibly conducted in the name of science, there was another, quite large element to it as well. Along with many native peoples and local leaders, interaction with renowned professional hunters and land owning families made the safari as much a political and social event, as it was a hunting excursion. Roosevelt wrote a detailed account of the adventure in the book African Game Trails, where he describes the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the name of science.
Theodore Roosevelt, first elephant camp, Kenia
The first bull elephant
Camping after death of the first bull elephant
Theodore Roosevelt with elephant
Theodore Roosevelt and bull elephant shot at Meru
Measuring elephant
Theodore Roosevelt, bringing the skull of my second bull
Theodore Roosevelt, Kermit Roosevelt and Sir Alfred Pease at the carcass of first big lion
Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt and buffalo cow in papyrus grass
Kermit Roosevelt and his big lion
Kermit Roosevelt and the leopard
Tarlton and cheetah shot by Kermit Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt big lion and Tarlton
Theodore Roosevelt and Cuninghame discussing the next few days' march over a wildebeest shot by Mr. Roosevelt
A large American flag was floating over my own tent, Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt and Medlicott at the spot for the first day of lion hunt
Noon at Ugami, Sir Alfred Pease bending over behind Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt weighing a lioness shot by him
Theodore Roosevelt, stopping for luncheon at Bondoni rocks
Heads of two big lions shot by Theodore Roosevelt
Kermit Roosevelt and cheetah shot by him
The old bull giraffe and Heller's Wkamba skinners
A young bull giraffe shot by Theodore Roosevelt at Kilimakiu
A zebra shot by Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt, Captain Slatter and rhino shot by Mr. Roosevelt
One of the Black Rhinos
Rhino of the usual type with prehensile lip, shot in the Sotik by Theodore
Male square-nosed rhino shot by Kermit Roosevelt
Cow square-nosed rhino of the Lado shot by Theodore Roosevelt
The great square-nosed rhino of the Lado
Theodore Roosevelt and some of the Nandi warriors
Theodore Roosevelt at Mother Paul's Mission
Theodore Roosevelt and Charles Hurlburt of the Africa Inland Mission
Theodore Roosevelt Rhino camp, lado Enclave
Theodore Roosevelt on a situtunga hunt
Theodore Roosevelt, camp in thorn grove by Guaso Nyero
Theodore Roosevelt, my boma when I was camped alone
Theodore Roosevelt, Governernor Jackson, Mr. Selous and Mr. Mearns
Theodore Roosevelt, porters dancing when breaking camp in Kamiti
Theodore Roosevelt, the safari fording a stream
A domesticated young male eland at Meru
Theodore Roosevelt with a whale-billed stork at Lake No
Theodore Roosevelt with Masai warriors and prize lion
Theodore Roosevelt with two big leopards
Kermit Roosevelt first giant eland shot on the Redjaf trip
Lion shot by Kermit Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt with kob, shot at rhino camp
Theodore Roosevelt, skinning an antilope
Heller preparing to send heads of the first five weeks
Porters returning at the end of the expedition
Monish
Theodore Roosevelt in Africa in his hunting costume
Theodore Roosevelt, the safari expedition
Theodore Roosevelt, the great white hunter
“The hunter who wanders through these lands sees sights which ever afterward remain fixed in his mind... Apart from this, yet mingled with it, is the strong attraction of the silent places, of the large tropic moons, and the splendor of the new stars; where the wanderer sees the awful glory of sunrise and sunset in the wide waste spaces of the earth, unworn of man, and changed only by the slow change of the ages through time everlasting.”
Col. Theodore Roosevelt in Khartoum, March 15, 1910
Map of safari expedition
Map of safari expedition
Theodore Roosevelt - African Safari & Scientific Expedition
Of the rifles, he chose the 1895 lever-action in 30-03 U.S. as well as a .405 Winchester and both were the highlighted calibers for his African Expedition. Theodore Roosevelt ended up having 15 wooden crates full of Winchesters rifles, ammunition and spare parts for his expedition from Winchester Reapeating Arms Co.
Some of Theodore Roosevelt baggage and equipment for safari expedition
Theodore Roosevelt on the bank of the nile arranging transport
Theodore Roosevelt, porters at the start of the expedition
Theodore Roosevelt inspecting rifle with Kermit Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt with Kermit Roosevelt in Kenya
The camping ground at Wapiti Plains in East Africa, Kenya
Theodore Roosevelt in front of his tent
Expedition Members
Newland & Tarlton, outfitters
R.J. Cunninghame, leader
Leslie J. Tarlton, adjutant
Edmund Heller, zoologist, age 34
J. Alden Loring, zoologist, age 38
Edgar A. Means, physician, age 52
Kermit Roosevelt, photographer, age 21
Theodore Roosevelt, bwana, age 50
Hunting Licenses
50gbp, 50 animals/hunter
17gbp, extra bull elephant
5gbp, extra giraffe, rhino, or eland
3gbp, extra antelope
2gbp, extra wildebeest
2gbp, extra waterbuck
Expedition Costs
$50,000 from Smithsonian Museum appeal
$25,000 from Theodore Roosevelt
$25,000 from Andrew Carnegie
2005 equivalent = appx. $1.8 million dollars
Game List
• Lion = 9
• Hyena = 5
• Elephant = 8
• Rhinoceros = 5 (square mouth)
• Rhinoceros = 8 (hook lipped)
• Hippopotamus = 7
• Warthog = 8
• Zebra (common) = 15
• Zebra (big) = 5
• Giraffe = 7
• Buffalo = 6
• Eland (giant) = 1
• Eland (common) = 5
• Bushbuck =2 (East African)
• Bushbuck = 1 (Ugandan)
• Bushbuck = 3 (Nile)
• Roan = 4
• Oryx = 10
• Wildebeest = 5
• Hartebeest = 10 (Coke's)
• Hartebeest = 14 (Jackson's)
• Hartebeest = 1 (Ugandan)
• Hartebeest = 8 (Nilotic)
• Topi = 12
• Waterbuck = 5 (common)
• Waterbuck = 6 (singsing)
• Python = 3
• Kob = 10 (common)
• Kob = 1 (Vaughan's)
• Kob = 3 (white eared)
• Lechwe = 3 (saddlebacked)
• Redbuck (bohor) = 10
• Buck (Chanler's) = 3
• Impalla = 7
• Gazelle (Granti) = 5
• Gazelle (Robertsi) = 4
• Gazelle (Notata) = 8
• Gazelle = 11 (Thompson's)
• Gerenuk = 3
• Klipspringer = 1
• Oribi = 18
• Duiker = 3
• Steinbuck = 4
• Dikdik = 1
• Monkey = 1 (red ground)
• Monkey = 5 (black and white ground)
• Ostrich = 2
• Bustard (Greater) = 4
• Bustard (Lesser) = 1
• Crane (kavirondo) = 2
• Stork (whale head) = 1
• Marabou = 1
• Stork (saddle bill) = 2
• Stork (ibis) = 1
• Pelican = 5
• Guinea fowl = 1
• Crocodile = 1
Theodore Roosevelt on the Wapiti Plains
Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt on the Kapiti plains
Theodore Roosevelt and the lion
Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt with elands
Black rhino
Shot rhino
Theodore Roosevelt with black rhino
Theodore Roosevelt and his prize rhino
Theodore Roosevelt with rhino and bustard
Theodore Roosevelt with rhino and bustard shot from rhino
Towing the hippo shot by Theodore Roosevelt
Dragging hippo out of the water
Landing the hippo shot by Theodore Roosevelt
Rolling out the hippo
The dead hippo
Theodore Roosevelt with hippo and bwana Engozi (Judd)
Theodore Roosevelt, towing the big bull hippo, Lake Naivasha
Bringing the big bull hippo to shore
Theodore Roosevelt big bull hippo
Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist looking for the bullet in the hippo's skull
In March 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt left New York for a safari in east and central Africa. Roosevelt's party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) before following the Nile up to Khartoum in modern Sudan. Financed by Andrew Carnegie and by his own proposed writings, Roosevelt's party hunted for specimens for the Smithsonian Institution and for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The group included scientists from the Smithsonian and was led by the legendary hunter-tracker R.J. Cunninghame and was joined from time to time by Frederick Selous, the famous big game hunter and explorer. Among other items, Roosevelt brought with him four tons of salt for preserving animal hides, a lucky rabbit's foot given to him by boxer John L. Sullivan, an elephant-rifle donated by a group of 56 admiring Britons, and the famous Pigskin Library, a collection of classics bound in pig leather and transported in a single reinforced trunk.
All told, Roosevelt and his companions killed or trapped over 11,397 animals, from insects and moles to hippopotamuses and elephants. These included 512 big game animals, including six rare white rhinos. The expedition consumed 262 of the animals. Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington; the quantity was so large that it took years to mount them all, and the Smithsonian was able to share many duplicate animals with other museums.
Regarding the large number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, "I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned." However, although the safari was ostensibly conducted in the name of science, there was another, quite large element to it as well. Along with many native peoples and local leaders, interaction with renowned professional hunters and land owning families made the safari as much a political and social event, as it was a hunting excursion. Roosevelt wrote a detailed account of the adventure in the book African Game Trails, where he describes the excitement of the chase, the people he met, and the flora and fauna he collected in the name of science.
Theodore Roosevelt, first elephant camp, Kenia
The first bull elephant
Camping after death of the first bull elephant
Theodore Roosevelt with elephant
Theodore Roosevelt and bull elephant shot at Meru
Measuring elephant
Theodore Roosevelt, bringing the skull of my second bull
Theodore Roosevelt, Kermit Roosevelt and Sir Alfred Pease at the carcass of first big lion
Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt and buffalo cow in papyrus grass
Kermit Roosevelt and his big lion
Kermit Roosevelt and the leopard
Tarlton and cheetah shot by Kermit Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt big lion and Tarlton
Theodore Roosevelt and Cuninghame discussing the next few days' march over a wildebeest shot by Mr. Roosevelt
A large American flag was floating over my own tent, Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt and Medlicott at the spot for the first day of lion hunt
Noon at Ugami, Sir Alfred Pease bending over behind Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt weighing a lioness shot by him
Theodore Roosevelt, stopping for luncheon at Bondoni rocks
Heads of two big lions shot by Theodore Roosevelt
Kermit Roosevelt and cheetah shot by him
The old bull giraffe and Heller's Wkamba skinners
A young bull giraffe shot by Theodore Roosevelt at Kilimakiu
A zebra shot by Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt, Captain Slatter and rhino shot by Mr. Roosevelt
One of the Black Rhinos
Rhino of the usual type with prehensile lip, shot in the Sotik by Theodore
Male square-nosed rhino shot by Kermit Roosevelt
Cow square-nosed rhino of the Lado shot by Theodore Roosevelt
The great square-nosed rhino of the Lado
Theodore Roosevelt and some of the Nandi warriors
Theodore Roosevelt at Mother Paul's Mission
Theodore Roosevelt and Charles Hurlburt of the Africa Inland Mission
Theodore Roosevelt Rhino camp, lado Enclave
Theodore Roosevelt on a situtunga hunt
Theodore Roosevelt, camp in thorn grove by Guaso Nyero
Theodore Roosevelt, my boma when I was camped alone
Theodore Roosevelt, Governernor Jackson, Mr. Selous and Mr. Mearns
Theodore Roosevelt, porters dancing when breaking camp in Kamiti
Theodore Roosevelt, the safari fording a stream
A domesticated young male eland at Meru
Theodore Roosevelt with a whale-billed stork at Lake No
Theodore Roosevelt with Masai warriors and prize lion
Theodore Roosevelt with two big leopards
Kermit Roosevelt first giant eland shot on the Redjaf trip
Lion shot by Kermit Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt with kob, shot at rhino camp
Theodore Roosevelt, skinning an antilope
Heller preparing to send heads of the first five weeks
Porters returning at the end of the expedition
Monish
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