Livingstone, David, 1813-1873

T. McCants Stewart enjoyed reading African Game Trails and commends Theodore Roosevelt’s unique writing style. He found the appendix on the Pigskin Library especially useful. However, Stewart has two criticisms. He asks why Roosevelt spelled “negro” with a lowercase “n” and wants to know why he uses the term “savage” to describe all naked people despite their friendly greeting. 

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-26

John Vanderbilt, who attended Columbia Law School at the same time as Theodore Roosevelt, recalls a time when Roosevelt balanced on a narrow mantel and read a law book with incredible concentration.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910

E. H. Hawley has been working on a descriptive card catalog of African musical instruments with information on their native names, distribution, and differences in tribal use. He asks Theodore Roosevelt for information on the native Ugandan equivalents of “drums” and “horns.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1910-01-24

W. S. Rainsford offers President Roosevelt advice about his upcoming trip to Africa. In particular, he advises Roosevelt not to engage William C. Judd as a guide for his son Kermit. Rainsford had a bad experience with Judd as his guide. He also advises Roosevelt about good hunting rifles and the precautions to take in hot weather. He tells Roosevelt to follow the advice of Frederick John Jackson, lieutenant-governor of British East Africa. Item includes a handwritten letter and a typed transcription.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1908-11-19

Chronology of the daily life of Theodore Roosevelt from October 1858 to December 1870. Notable events include the Roosevelt family’s involvement in the American Civil War, Theodore Roosevelt meeting John Hay as a child, and the Roosevelt family’s first European trip.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association

Creation Date

1985

In “The Sighting at Pine Knot, Virginia,” Alton A. Lindsay explores the question of whether Theodore Roosevelt was the last person to report a credible sighting of the extinct passenger pigeon near his presidential retreat, Pine Knot in Virginia, in 1907. Lindsay provides a history of Pine Knot and also looks at the making of Roosevelt as a naturalist going back to his childhood.  He notes some of the defining experiences in Roosevelt’s life that made him a naturalist and conservationist, such as his time in the Dakota Badlands. Like other scholars he pushes back against the idea that Roosevelt was merely a man of action and asserts that he “was a man of intellect.”

 

He details Roosevelt’s sighting of a small flock of passenger pigeons in May 1907, and argues that Roosevelt’s history and experience as a naturalist and ornithologist lend credibility to his claims to have seen the birds. 

 

President Roosevelt sits at his desk studying a “map of Africa.” Kermit Roosevelt cleans a gun beside him. President Roosevelt’s “big stick” “malefactor of great wealth” costume, “mud,” “undesirable citizen,” and “big noise” drum are hanging up on the wall. To the right of his desk are a number of books with African explorers’ names in them: David Livingstone, Henry M. Stanley, Paul Kruger, John Hanning Speke, and Richard Francis Burton.

comments and context

Comments and Context

Democratic cartoonist W. A. Rogers evidently was convinced that Republican candidate William H. Taft would win the presidency four years hence — or he displayed President Roosevelt’s confidence, as per the title of the drawing, and the preoccupation in the White House.

In honor of President Roosevelt’s upcoming African safari, C. Bryson Taylor writes about the sights, conditions, hazards, and necessary supplies of a hunting trip in safari. Taylor details the guides, provisions, ammunition, and medicines travelers will need when embarking into the “dark and brooding heart” of Africa. Taylor also weaves in two fictional stories about previous hunting parties, which demonstrate the harshness of the expeditions.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-01-09