Heller, Edmund, 1875-1939

Charles D. Walcott signed a letter to Henry Fairfield Osborn notifying him of the transfer of two white rhinoceros skins that Theodore Roosevelt collected. He was sorry to hear of Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt’s accident and hopes she is recovering, especially as he knows what it is like to have someone close experience a serious accident. Childs Frick and Edmund Heller are in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) to augment the specimens collected while on safari with Roosevelt. Walcott will soon be in New York City and hopes to see Roosevelt.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-11-03

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-30

Creator(s)

White, Stewart Edward, 1873-1946

Recipient

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

R. J. Cuninghame thanks Theodore Roosevelt for the letter and pamphlet on animal coloration. He reports the success of several safaris and gives updates on some of their friends and fellow hunters.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-26

Leslie J. Tarlton updates Theodore Roosevelt on his much better health condition since his last letter and on the safari trip that he took in Nairobi, Kenya. Carlton describes lion hunting and appreciates Roosevelt for his gifts that he sent to him and others. Carlton then seeks Roosevelt’s advice regarding his coming to America and hopes he can direct him any way.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-20

As directed by Secretary of the Smithsonian Charles D. Walcott, chief clerk Harry W. Dorsey sends Theodore Roosevelt a letter from Edmund Heller about the safari with Paul James Rainey. The illustrations have arrived, but the text has not.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-08-16

Edgar Alexander Mearns praises the people of South Carolina. Mearns is also grateful for the interest that Theodore Roosevelt showed in Colonel Whister’s promotion. Edmund Heller would be “tremendously pleased” to have Roosevelt write about large African mammals.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-06-09

Charles D. Walcott informs Theodore Roosevelt that Edmund Heller’s pamphlets on the white rhino and giant eland will be mailed soon. Walcott tells Roosevelt of his sons’ future endeavors in the West and his wife and daughter’s summer plans in the East. Walcott is glad the political climate feels like “old times.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-05-16

Joseph Grinnell invites Theodore Roosevelt to visit the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology in Berkeley, California, on his upcoming trip. The museum has a large collection of birds and mammals from the Pacific Coast, many of which were personally collected by Annie Montague Alexander.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-15

Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian, assures Theodore Roosevelt that it will not interfere with publication of studies on Roosevelt’s specimens from Africa if Edmund Heller accompanies Paul James Rainey on another expedition to Africa. Heller will put the finishing touches on the white rhinoceros publication on the boat to Naples and send it back for publication. The time that Heller is away will allow the remaining mammal skins to be labeled and prepared for a broad study of the collection. It is too late to change the plan and find another man to go in Heller’s place.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-08

Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian, is glad that Theodore Roosevelt agrees that the zoologist Edmund Heller should go accompany Paul James Rainey on a trip to South Abyssinia. Senator Thomas Henry Carter, chairman of the Senate Irrigation Committee, is writing a report of the committee’s investigation into reclamation projects in the west, which Walcott believes discredits work done during Roosevelt’s administration. If this is the case, Walcott is sure that the minority report by Senator Francis G. Newlands will dispute it.

Comments and Context

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian, informs Theodore Roosevelt that the zoologist Edmund Heller has an opportunity to travel to northern British East Africa for eight months with the hunter Paul Rainey. The fauna there will supplement Roosevelt’s collections and Heller is willing to go, but hesitant because it would delay is report on mammals. Walcott asks Roosevelt whether he thinks a delay in the report is warranted under the circumstances.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-02-02

Charles D. Walcott explains that Edmund Heller has the opportunity to collect zoological specimens in British East Africa with Paul James Rainey. However, Heller is hesitant to delay work on Theodore Roosevelt’s collection. Walcott asks Roosevelt to persuade Heller to accompany Rainey.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-01-30

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910-03-06

Creator(s)

Selous, Frederick Courteney, 1851-1917

Recipient

Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

Charles D. Walcott will make sure J. Alden Loring and Edmund Heller are explicitly instructed to not publish anything until after President Roosevelt has published his own articles and book about his safari trip.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-08

Cyrus Adler, acting secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, would prefer if the final decision of who is to accompany President Roosevelt on his safari could be delayed until fall when Charles D. Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, will be back from the field and could confer directly with Roosevelt. Adler suggests that Roosevelt consider taking Edgar Alexander Mearns as a naturalist who is also trained in medicine, and mentions Edmund Heller as someone to consider for the role of taxidermist. Adler does not presently think the arrangement suggested by Frank M. Chapman is a good one.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-07-09

Kermit Roosevelt writes Theodore Roosevelt and exclaims the convention must have been “extraordinary.” He informs Roosevelt that Rudyard Kipling placed a bet on Roosevelt during the Republican primaries against an American who thought he was dead. Kermit Roosevelt and Helen Robinson Roosevelt visited Frederick Courteney Selous and learned his trip to British East Africa was very successful although he had a close call with a buffalo. Kermit tells his father that Edmund Heller is fine and an intelligent progressive.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910-1919

Photograph showing zoologist Edmund Hellers and two Africans skinning and preparing an animal hide in a tent.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1910-04-04

Photograph shows hunter R. J. Cunninghame, Kermit Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Edmund Heller, and Hugh H. Heatley standing with African buffalo skulls in front of tent.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1919-05-14

Theodore Roosevelt sends Charles D. Walcott an inkstand made of a rhinoceros foot. He offers to write the section on large mammals in Walcott and Edmund Heller’s forthcoming volume. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-04-21

Kermit Roosevelt updates the Fergusons on his activities at school and the Roosevelt family. He jokes about Martha Ferguson catching skunks and feels he may qualify as a second-assistant skunk catcher. Roosevelt recently visited Edmund Heller and Edgar Alexander Mearns at the Smithsonian Institution to watch them work on bird and rodent specimens.

Collection

Arizona Historical Society

Creation Date

1911-02-11