Animals

Animated cartoon beginning with a character representing Paul James Rainey, explorer and hunter, being washed overboard. He swims to a barrel, climbs in, then grabs hold of a whale’s tail, who tows him toward shore where he lands. A bird resembling an ostrich lays an egg. Rainey sits on the egg which hatches. He rides a bird while being chased by a lion and is saved by a native. The bird chases the lion and throws him out to sea where he is swallowed by whale. A native takes Rainey to a wedding feast at which Rainey is the intended groom. Rainey runs away, jumps into barrel and floats out to sea while natives gather at shore. The interior titles describing the action of the cartoon are written in the form of limericks.

Collection

Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound

Creation Date

1911

An automobile driver is pursued by the ghosts of many animals that have probably been hit and killed by automobile drivers since the invention of the automobile.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-04-20

Many wild animals in a jungle setting, several wearing bandages, look at a lone footprint in the sand and wonder if Theodore Roosevelt has finally departed, leaving them safe from his big game pursuits.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-03-16

Theodore Roosevelt details the presence and demise of the buffalo in America. In his detailed timeline, Roosevelt discusses major innovations and events contributing to the buffalo’s decline, such as the railroad.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

Unknown

Wild animals and birds crash through sugarcane, fleeing from an unseen threat. Caption: (From a painting just presented to the Louisiana Historical Society.)

Comments and Context

Fresh from his public tussles with titans of finance, President Roosevelt left — perhaps to regain some freshness — for a hunting trip in the Louisiana cane breaks. After his late summer spent at Sagamore Hill, including a lunch in September with Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, presiding judge over the Rockefeller-Standard Oil trial, Roosevelt left Washington on September 29, 1907 for a string of speeches and then Louisiana bear hunting between October 6 and 19.

For decades, cartoonists took inspiration from the reaction of animals preceding Roosevelt’s hunting trips. In this cartoon, Udo J. Keppler might have employed studied ambiguity — are the animals fleeing Roosevelt the hunter? or are they advancing with menacing expressions?

The article, published in The Outlook in July of 1910, describes Theodore Roosevelt’s interest in birds, and in particular, his birdwatching while visiting England.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1910-07-23

Theodore Roosevelt details the presence and demise of the buffalo in America. In his detailed timeline Roosevelt discusses major innovations and events contributing to the buffalo’s decline, such as the railroad. Two copies of article: one handwritten, one typed with edits.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

Unknown

Governor Roosevelt thanks General Johnson for the quail he sent to the Roosevelt family, describes the recent visit of German diplomat Baron Hermann Speck von Sturnberg, and says he wishes to chat about global current events with Johnson. Specifically, Roosevelt mentions an incident between Britain and South Africa.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1899-12-27

Theodore Roosevelt diary annotated in the front cover “T. R. Jr. Sporting and collecting.” Entries are primarily from Oyster Bay, New York with some made from the St. Regis Lake region in the Adirondack mountains. Records of animals and skins. End of diary contains “Summary of collections in 1875” and “Summary of collections of 1874.”

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1875

Travel diary of fourteen-year-old Theodore Roosevelt beginning in New York, sailing on the ship Russia for Liverpool and ending in Vienna as he departs for Dresden. Includes entries for Egypt, Jerusalem, and many other locations in the Middle East. Also included is an entry for “Diary in the North Eastern states in August of 1872.” Sketches, doodles, and lists, including a list of expenses, can be found. Some pages have been torn out.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1872-1873

Theodore Roosevelt praises Rosalind Richards for her book A Northern Countryside and asks some questions about animals about which she wrote. He then includes some animal facts of his own. He adds that he agrees with her about politics and does not know why it turns fairly good citizens into crooks.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1916-12-12

Diary of Theodore Roosevelt kept while he was big game hunting in Africa with his son Kermit. Includes numbers and names of animals killed as well as drawings of animals with where they were shot. No entries for January through 23 March. End of the volume includes addresses and a list of books.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1909

Theodore Roosevelt’s diary documenting his hunting trips in Oklahoma and Colorado. There are no entries for January through 5 April and 9 May to 31 December.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1905

Diary kept by Theodore Roosevelt while on a cougar hunt in Colorado from January 11 to February 15, 1901. There are no entries for January 1-10 or February 16-December 31. The end includes general notes on hunting and animals, especially including game shot by others.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1901

In upstate New York (“The Catskills not ten miles from here”), Theodore Roosevelt reports on his visit with “Cousin Jimmy.” He writes about pony rides, birds and animals he observed, and playing in a brook with “crayfish, eels, minnows, salamanders, water spiders, water bugs. . .” and other topics. “By Theodore Roosevelt. My Life. Three Weeks of My Life. Age 9 Years” is penciled on cardboard cover. Date range is from August 10, 1868, to September 5, 1868.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

Creation Date

1868

In this carbon copy of the original, Theodore Roosevelt writes his friend explorer Frederick Courteney Selous regarding Selous’ upcoming hunting safari in the Sudan. He asks him to kill and investigate certain animals including a Lado giraffe and a whiteheaded cob. He updates him on some of their friends and says Edmund Heller is going back to Africa. He thanks Selous for his words about Roosevelt’s defeat in the last Presidential election.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1911-02-02

This cartoon depicts Theodore Roosevelt around a campfire surrounded by several wild animals including a bear, bison, moose, rabbit, wolf, and elk/deer. Caption: “An appreciative audience hearing President Roosevelt relate his experience in the White House.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1903-04-11

President Roosevelt is happy Kermit has been acting as cox on the rowing team. Roosevelt describes his trip into the Grand Canyon and all the animals and plants he has seen. He has collected a variety of treasures which he will bring home for Kermit and the other children. These treasures include a badger named Josiah.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1903-05-10

President Roosevelt sends Kermit a “picture letter” of things he has done and seen on his western trip with John Burroughs. There is a sketch of them chasing elk, a sketch of an owl, and of mountain goats. Roosevelt says he has enjoyed the trip.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1903-04-16

A young Theodore Roosevelt sketches various animals and a fishing boat in Naples. The exact year of these sketches in unknown.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1870