Page 24 - JOA_ 0720_ONLINE_REV

prolific writer on the subject of birds and mammals with a promising The expedition, “conducted in the same of science,” collected around
career in the natural sciences. Instead, Roosevelt chose a career in politics; 11,400 animal specimens which took Smithsonian naturalists eight years
however, he never abandoned his love of nature and sense of adventure, to catalog. According to Roosevelt’s own tally, that figure included about
passions he pursued both during and after his presidency. four thousand birds, two thousand reptiles and amphibians, five hundred
As any collector will tell you, the thrill of the hunt can be as exciting fish, and 4,897 mammals (other sources put this figure at 5,103). Add to
as the acquisition itself. That was certainly the case when it came to this marine, land and freshwater shells, crabs, beetles, and other
Theodore Roosevelt. His larger-than-life adventures for the invertebrates, not to mention several thousand plants, and the number of
Smithsonian Institution on expeditions to collect specimens and natural history specimens totaled 23,151. Of that number, the National
species—everything from flora and fauna to birds, small and large Museum of Natural History acquired approximately 1,000 skins of
mammals, insects, and sea life—from remote parts of the world are the large mammals, 4,000 of small mammals, and other specimens
stories on which legends are made! totaling approximately 11,400 items. About 10,000 plant specimens
were also obtained, as well as a small collection of
ethnological objects. The balance went to the
American Museum of Natural History in New York
For Teddy Roosevelt, the white rhino was and the San Francisco Museum.
the only species of heavy game left for the Roosevelt and his son were personally credited
expedition to collect, and, of all the species, with killing 512 of the animals collected, including
it was the one the Smithsonian would likely lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, elephants, buffalo,
never have an opportunity to collect again. and (now very rare) black rhinos, and white rhinos.
photo: Smithsonian Institution Archives In his 1910 book, African Game Trails; An Account
of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter-
Naturalist, Roosevelt provided a complete list of
their kills. He justified them by saying:
“Kermit and I kept about a dozen trophies for
ourselves; otherwise we shot nothing that was not
used either as a museum specimen or for meat ...”

The Nature Paradox
Roosevelt believed “all hunters should be nature
lovers,” and hunting and preserving big-game animals
held long-term value for humanity’s study of life on
Earth. In his mind, “fair” hunting meant knowing
natural history, knowing the
Theodore Roosevelt, right, land and animals, and never
stands next to a lion killed on safari. slaughtering for the sake of
photo: Library of Congress
the kill alone but for the
Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition advancement of human
knowledge. He condemned
In 1909, shortly after the end of his presidency, Roosevelt and his
son, Kermit—who served as the photographer for the adventure— “game butchery as objection-
able as any form of wanton
embarked on a 10-month African safari, officially known as the cruelty and barbarity,”
Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition. Billed as a conservation although he does note that
mission, this massive safari was financed by Andrew Carnegie and by “to protest against all hunting
Roosevelt's own proposed writings, and outfitted by the Smithsonian, of game is a sign of softness of
looking to collect specimens for its new Natural History Museum, head, not of soundness of
now known as the National Museum of Natural History. He engaged heart.” And as a pioneer of
the Smithsonian in his grand adventure by proposing the following: wilderness conservation in
“As you know, I am not in the least a game butcher. I like to do a
certain amount of hunting, but my real and main interest is the interest the U.S., he fully supported
the British Government’s
of a faunal naturalist. Now, it seems to me that this opens up the best attempts at that time to set
chance for the National Museum to get a fine collection, not only of aside wilderness areas as game
the big game beasts but of the smaller animals and birds of Africa; and reserves, some of the first on
looking at it dispassionately, it seems to me that the chance ought not the African continent.
to be neglected.” Known as a Naturalist and Conservationist, this duality—
The unstated but recognized value-added in this arrangement was
the chance for the Smithsonian to acquire specimens that had been shot Roosevelt’s love of nature juxtaposed with his passion for killing it—is
perhaps the most misunderstood part of his legacy. So how does one
by Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States. reconcile Roosevelt's lifelong prolific shooting of wildlife with his
The Smithsonian, through anonymous private donations, also funded
three naturalists to join the Expedition in return for the receipt of live record as America's foremost conservationist? Mark Twain, for one,
could not; he regarded Roosevelt as a hypocrite.
and preserved specimens: Edgar Alexander Mearns was selected as head
naturalist and bird-collector, Edmund Heller was to care for the large
mammals, and John Alden Loring was to have charge of the small The Great Amazon Expedition
mammal collecting. The party left New York on March 23, 1909, and Following a disappointing loss in the 1912 presidential election,
sailed for British East Africa. Roosevelt struck out again on a scientific adventure, this time heading
The group, led by the legendary hunter-tracker R. J. Cunninghame, for South America to navigate an unmapped river in the Amazon, an
started out in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to adventure he described as his “last chance to be a boy.” He envisioned
the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), and then it as part holiday and part scientific endeavor, and again secured
followed the Nile to Khartoum in modern Sudan. For some of this sponsorship from the Smithsonian and American Museum of Natural
journey, Roosevelt was accompanied by famed British bird-and-animal History to record and collect animal specimens on what was named the
photographer Cherry Kearton, who shot wildlife and native scenes with Roosevelt–Rondon Scientific Expedition.
a hand-cranked motion picture camera, later made into a movie. The team consisted of Roosevelt, his 23-year-old son Kermit, two
naturalists including famed American George Kruck Cherrie, a team of

22 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles