It is bracing to reflect on how extraordinarily accomplished the 26th President of the United States was. Theodore Roosevelt was a rancher, New York City police commissioner, Secretary of the Navy, combat veteran, explorer, author of some 40 books and reader of thousands…
He was also a hunter and conservationist, twin passions that drove both the public and the private man. A new book recounts Roosevelt’s safari in East Africa in 1909, one of the most extraordinary post-presidency acts in American history.
Immediately after Theodore Roosevelt left the White House, he led an African expedition for the Smithsonian that collected more than 23,000 specimens for its new natural history museum. Alongside his son, Kermit, Smithsonian naturalists, and African porters, they brought back a wide range of plants, fish, reptiles, and big game. This book takes readers along for the journey, and features:
- More than 100 expedition photographs printed with stunning reproduction quality.
- Excerpts from Roosevelt’s firsthand account in African Game Trails.
- Historical context and contemporary commentary from author Frank H. Goodyear III that provides an in-depth understanding of the expedition and its significance.
- A foreword from Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie G. Bunch III, who provides nuanced insight on Roosevelt’s complicated legacy.
- An afterword from Dino J. Martins, a Kenyan entomologist and evolutionary biologist, on the role of African communities during the expedition.
Theodore Roosevelt and the Smithsonian Expedition to British East Africa, 1909-10 contextualizes the expedition, explores its impact, and reflects on Roosevelt’s complex legacy as a president and hunter-conservationist.
The legendary Frederick Courteney Selous accompanied the Roosevelt safari for a portion of the trek, but Roosevelt’s main pro was R.J. Cunninghame, pictured in the center of the cow-catcher above. Roosevelt wrote of him:
…[B]y birth a Scotsman and a Cambridge man, but long a resident of Africa, and at one time a professional elephant hunter, in addition to having been a whaler in the Arctic Ocean, a hunter-naturalist in Lapland, a transport rider in S. Africa, and a collector for the British Museum in various odd corners of the earth… lean, sinewy, bearded, exactly the type of hunter and safari manager that one could wish for such an expedition as ours… He taught me as much as one man can learn from another about the game of hunting elephants… the fact that Cuninghame spent so many years hunting the great game of Africa without ever being mauled is evidence of his skill.
Truly one of the great ones — and a picturesque fellow at that.
You can be that this un will be sitting on my coffee table in a couple of days…
Craig Rullman says
Yes. A thousand times.
Wayne says
I want my copy now!
JimC says
Right? Mine is supposed to get here by the end of the week.
David Wrolson says
Well, off to Amazon I guess.
I have to look and see if I have his African Game Trails-I think I do.
Ugly Hombre says
https://calfkicker.com/the-internet-is-obsessed-with-a-video-of-stephen-hawking-fighting-in-the-ufc/
“Long before Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu dominated mixed martial arts and captured the world’s attention, an American president was quietly revolutionizing the martial arts landscape in the early 1900s. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, became the first commander-in-chief to embrace Japanese combat arts”
Well he was the first and only one far as I know. Really interesting that T.R. learned it and became quite good at it the first Asian Martial art that became well known on the American scene. He learned about it from a American who spent years in Japan studied it with the Tokyo police who at that time must have been rough devils indeed.
‘In 1900, John O’Brien became the first jiu-jitsu instructor in America after spending four to five years learning traditional Japanese jiu-jitsu as a police constable in Nagasaki, Japan. O’Brien returned to the United States with his Japanese instructor, Inaway, and began conducting demonstrations and teaching classes. Despite his legitimate credentials and passion for the art, O’Brien struggled to gain widespread attention. Media coverage was sparse, with fewer than ten stories per year covering his activities.”
Like to know more about this gent he must have had a heck of a adventure in Japan.
“Roosevelt employed Yamashita to teach not only himself but also established him as an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Yamashita’s wife, Fude, conducted the first women-only judo class in America and gave public demonstrations, often throwing male opponents. The president’s daughter, Alice Roosevelt, also took classes from Yamashita.
Roosevelt had effectively established an official martial arts program within the military, with one of Japan’s finest instructors creating what could have been a generation of American black belts in the nation’s center of power”
Really interesting history and now it is back being taught in the U.S. military as a sport and for combat. Don’t know anything about it- but it I was going to start martial arts and was young again I would start with Judo and Ju jitsu. One of the Japanese instructors a high level Black belt was paid 5K a year that’s about $200,000 today- that’s big money back then. It cause a big stir and the program faded out. Ju Jitsu came back in WW! and was taught to doughboys in infantry camps by another American who earned a black belt in Japan.
Surprised to read that T.R was so into it and took some real damage learning fighting skills had a eye damaged badly from boxing..
A real Warrior and a great president..
Ugly Hombre says
https://www.artofmanliness.com/health-fitness/fitness/vintage-jiu-jitsu-lessons-theodore-roosevelts-personal-instructor/
Addendum: here is some more info about T.R’s Ju- Jitsu.
David Wrolson says
Re-TR and his presidential library.
A presidential library TR is being built at Medor. North Dakota, which is the site of his western adventures.
Slated to open Summer 2026.
I plan to visit ASAP-but I suspect opening weekend would be to busy.
JimC says
Oh HELL yes. This adds to the allure of a pilgrimage to my maternal grandparents’ home territory.