Elephants

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt writes to Frederick Courteney Selous about big game hunting and authors of the sport. Roosevelt was disappointed by the inaccuracies in Percy Selous’s book, which he bought because it was co-authored with Henry Anderson Bryden. Roosevelt offers congratulations to Selous and his wife on the upcoming birth of their first child and talks about his own family life and the obstacles it produces for getting away despite being fond of his wife and six children. He longs for an extended hunt but will settle for reading of other wildernesses like those in Selous’s book. Roosevelt presumes they would both count Fitzwilliam Thomas Pollok a fake based on his writings since he includes some experiences “that are all nonsense,” much like the writing of Henry Astbury Leveson, the Old Shikari. Roosevelt says that both Pollok and Leveson’s work would “have done credit” to the adventure writer Mayne Reid. Roosevelt also thinks William Henry Drummond “was not always an exact observer” based on what Selous wrote. Roosevelt mentions the black rhinoceros attacks William Astor Chanler and Ludwig Ritter von Höhnel experienced when in Africa and that he has just finished the book by John Guille Millais that Selous sent him.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1898-02-15

Assistant Secretary of the Navy Roosevelt is glad that Frederick Courteney Selous enjoyed his hunting trip, but is melancholy to realize that the United States has lost so much of its hunting grounds. Roosevelt recalls a few of his own hunting experiences: “I was just in time to see the last of the real wilderness life and real wilderness hunting.” Roosevelt also recommends several books to Selous and provides information about his experience ranching in North Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1897-11-30

J. Alden Loring asks Theodore Roosevelt if Frank Harper spoke to him about using Kermit Roosevelt’s elephant photograph to illustrate Loring’s article on elephants. Loring hopes Roosevelt can give him permission to use it and assures him he will give Kermit Roosevelt the copyright.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1913-04-01

William Morrow assures Theodore Roosevelt that the elephant head will not be removed from Harvard Hall.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-09

Carl Ethan Akeley tells President Roosevelt that he has sent him a model of an elephant head instead of sending drawings and photographs as he had previously promised. Akeley has also made Roosevelt a camp table that he would like to send him, and asks where he can send it. Akeley plans to write to Roosevelt again in a few days about his trip to British East Africa and the elephant group for the American Museum of Natural History.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-26

William L. Smith offers advice for President Roosevelt’s upcoming East Africa expedition, including what sort of camera to bring along, and the sort of treatment necessary to prevent malaria. Smith suggests purchasing  $400 Naturalists Graflex camera in order to take photographs of animals at a distance, and explains how to best care for the plates, plate holder, and film box so the photos will not get ruined. He additionally recommends Dr. Koch’s preventative malaria treatment which involves taking powdered quinine for two successive days each week. Smith met with three friends who recently returned from East Africa who also saw Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-25

Frederick Courtney Selous discusses concerns about President Roosevelt’s upcoming trip to Africa. Selous gives his opinions on the provisions, safari guides, equipment porters, and the hunting of big game animals. Selous includes a postscript informing Roosevelt that everything has been shipped and should arrive in Nairobi by early March.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-25

T. Broadwood Johnson is glad that the itinerary, notes, and book were of use and interest to President Roosevelt. Johnson has spoken to Sub-commissioner F. A. Knowles about the best places for elephant and buffalo. He provides Roosevelt with recommendations for the best places to shoot them, and how long it might take to do so.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-10-17

Having recently visited East Africa, Anglo-Irish writer Moreton Frewen shares insights with President Roosevelt, including locations where big game gathers, the presence of insects, and people to contact.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-08-17

Leslie J. Tarlton describes a recent hunting safari he and a friend from Australia made in Kenya. Tarlton hunted many lions and elephants with Robert Barr Smith, and while they had very good luck with the lions, they were less fortunate hunting elephants.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-04-05

Draft manuscript containing an essay, “The lion,” by Frederick Courteney Selous. Selous recounts many stories of lions attacking people and animals, and of adventures involving lions. He also addresses lions more scientifically, and offers a description of the habits and living conditions of lions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907-06-03

This postcard shows an elephant assisting a man climb onto its back. Charles C. Myers explains that in India and Ceylon, elephants are trained to help with the heavy lifting in many industries, including construction.

Comments and Context

In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Most all the heavy work is done by elephants. They are trained to do most anything and when building houses and bridges etc. elephants do all the lifting of heavy building material and they are indeed obedient servants.”

Collection

Charles C. Myers Collection

Newspaper clipping of cartoon showing Theodore Roosevelt, holding a rifle, looking at oversize tracks labeled “The third term idea.” An elephant hides nearby in the brush.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1908

In the first section of the cartoon, President Roosevelt holds a “cablegram” from the “Atlantic Cable Co.” that reads, “Mr. Roosevelt killed an elephant. Roosevelt ($6.00),” as he gestures to the African standing behind him for his gun. There are large footprints in the ground. Caption: Special Correspondent Roosevelt–“Ha! I have a tip that Mr. Roosevelt is about to slay an elephant. It’ll make a hot story.” In the second section, Roosevelt holds “cable blanks” in one hand and his gun in his other hand as he follows the tracks. The African says, “I feel the sleeping sickness getting me!” Caption: “Now for a scoop!” In the third section, Roosevelt stumbles upon reporters from “The Sun” and “The World”. They say, “Fire when you are ready, Mr. Roosevelt.” The elephant is sweating profusely and leans on a tree. Caption: “Dee–lighted!”

comments and context

Comments and Context

With only a month and two days remaining in the term of Theodore Roosevelt, the cartoonists of America were not about to lose the last opportunities to depict their peripatetic president, nor milk the last drops of comic speculations about his African safari — especially when Roosevelt announced that he would allow no press coverage.

Rear Admiral Presley Marion Rixey looks on as President Roosevelt fires at two targets shaped like a lion and elephant with the names “Foraker” and “Tillman” respectively on them. Two rabbits–“Mellen” and “Paul Morton–as well as a wolf–“E. H. Gary” also watch. Beside them is “the spear that knows no brother.” Caption: Prepare targets similar to those shown above, lead the Faunal Naturalist to the rifle range and he will do the rest.

comments and context

Comments and Context

McKee Barclay’s drawing represents, in cartooning terms, a mixed metaphor, calling upon several thematic and political threads in one image. President Roosevelt appears to be readying himself for his upcoming African safari by target practice; yet he concentrates by labelling two of targets with the names of two of the most persistent of the president’s critics, Senators Joseph Benson Foraker and “Pitchfork” Benjamin R. Tillman.

President Roosevelt wears a “typewriter” on his back and points his finger at an elephant in Africa as another man photographs the incident. Caption: Mr. Roosevelt’s equipment need not be expensive.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Among a multitude of cartoon speculations on Theodore Roosevelt’s upcoming African safari, artists played variations on the simple theme that wild animals would be cowed by the belligerent Roosevelt.

The Theodore Roosevelt quote on this postcards reads: “Sentimentality is the most broken reed upon which righteousness can lean.”

Collection

Fritz R. Gordner Collection

Creation Date

1910

The Cracker Jack Bears are at the circus. One bear rides an elephant while juggling four boxes of Cracker Jack while the other bear feeds the elephant peanuts. A poem about Cracker Jack at the circus is located at the top right hand corner of the card. Number eleven in a series of sixteen cards that were sent for free to anyone who mailed in ten sides from Cracker Jack boxes or ten cents in “silver or stamps.”

Collection

Fritz R. Gordner Collection

Creation Date

1907

Kermit Roosevelt will continue to write to Robert Harry Munro and Isabella Ferguson although he has not received a reply yet. Roosevelt recounts his hunting exploits, interactions with the indigenous peoples, and his hopes of visiting the Fergusons at Saranac after returning from Africa.

Collection

Arizona Historical Society

Creation Date

1909-12-26

This image depicts two sphinx-like figures, one with the head of Theodore Roosevelt, and the other with the head of William Jennings Bryan. Beneath these figures stand two figures representing the two main political parties holding their hats in their hands, along with question marks. This is likely in reference to the influence that both men held in their respective parties, and the lingering questions of who they would endorse (or indeed, if they would run for the presidency themselves).

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1912