Rhinoceroses

Dinner gong with accompanying mallet mounted on top of two rhinoceros feet. A small plaque dedicates the gift from former president Theodore Roosevelt to Ambassador to France Robert Bacon.

Comments and Context

Following his African Safari, Theodore Roosevelt gifted many of his friends and acquaintances mementos made out of some of his hunting trophies, including inkwells, wastepaper baskets, and items like this dinner gong. Ambassador Bacon was a longtime friend of Roosevelt, and had both served in his administration in the State Department and in his unofficial “Tennis Cabinet.”

Collection

America

Gregory A. Wynn charts the history of three rhinoceros inkwells connected to Theodore Roosevelt. One belonged to Roosevelt and has a prominent place on his desk at Sagamore Hill and two others were gifts from Roosevelt to John Callan O’Laughlin and Lawrence F. Abbott, both of whom accompanied Roosevelt on parts of his African safari and European trip in 1909-1910. Wynn notes the manufacturers of the inkwells, their provenance, and he situates them in the context of Roosevelt’s love of big game hunting.

A photograph of Wynn and three photographs of the inkwells supplement the text.

Tweed Roosevelt explores Theodore Roosevelt’s scant record of fishing and why he preferred hunting. Roosevelt details Theodore Roosevelt’s modest record as a fisherman, and he explains how hunting, with its twin attractions of difficulty and danger, appealed to Theodore Roosevelt’s zeal for the strenuous life while the largely sedentary and placid sport of fishing did not. Roosevelt looks at Theodore Roosevelt’s 1917 trip to Florida to harpoon manta rays which was more akin to hunting than fishing, and he highlights some of Roosevelt’s more dangerous hunts like those he undertook during his African safari.

Five photographs and four illustrations accompany the essay.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Photograph showing Theodore Roosevelt watching a man measure a rhinoceros’s horn.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1919

Photograph showing Theodore Roosevelt with a dead rhinoceros and a bustard shot from the rhinoceros.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-05-14

Photograph showing Theodore Roosevelt standing behind the carcass of a rhinoceros.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-05-14

The “official public notary” raises his right hand and tells President Roosevelt, who also has his hand raised, “Understand. Anything you say now may be used against you later on.” The “official weigher” and “official measurer” get information about a dead rhinoceros while the “official stenographer” takes notes. There are a gun and a book of “official sworn statements” on the ground.

comments and context

Comments and Context

To twentieth-century eyes, the idea behind Luther Daniels Bradley’s cartoon in his series forecasting events in Theodore Roosevelt’s upcoming African safari, would be the necessity to be environmentally sensitive and punctilious in his pursuit of animal specimens.

President Roosevelt has his big stick at his feet and holds out his hands toward a snake, a lion, a tiger, a giraffe, a rhino, and a monkey. The “G.O.P.” elephant says, “He hypnotized me.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The Washington Herald’s Joseph Harry Cunningham paid subtle compliments to President Roosevelt in this cartoon that was published precisely a week before the Republican National Convention would convene in Chicago. Presidents did not attend their parties’ conventions in those times, nor did candidates unless they were nominated in last-minute stampedes or compromises.

President Roosevelt is on the hunt as a bear, a sheep labeled “the weakling,” and a rhinoceros labeled “new finance” run away while an octopus wrapped in a tree and a bull stay out of the way. In the background is a “muck rake” and a goat labeled “E.H.H.” on a mountain, “reserved for scape-goats.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

W. A. Rogers is a singular figure in American political cartooning. He never was a facile cartoonist or caricaturist, and his concepts seldom were persuasive; that is, the cartoons only mildly attacked or supported men and movements. For the most part he was more an editorial cartoonist, illustrating events and situations rather than attempting persuasion. This is one reason his cartoons illustrate more reference works today than many of his fellows. Yet he was highly regarded in his day, and worked for years at Harper’s Weekly and the New York Herald, substantial publications.

Photograph of three men standing near a slain rhinoceros, enclosed in a letter from Paul Morton to President Roosevelt. On verso, James Bryant Lindley has written, “‘The call of the blood.’ I still hope to see you.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1907

Postcard is part of the Roosevelt Tour series. Description of the reverse says: “RHINOCEROS AT REST. The Roosevelt photographer who took this picture of a rhinoceros sunning himself on his native velt, had a narrow escape. The animal charged him and he had to flee, leaving his camera. The rhinoceros is the most dangerous animal in the African wilds, as he has a very uncertain temper and will often charge a man without the slightest warning. He is, however, very stupid and almost blind and cannot see anything distinctly at a distance of ten yards. The recourse of the hunter is to remain still and the chances are very good that the rhinoceros will miss him in his charge. They have been known to have horns as long as 47 inches.”

Collection

Fritz R. Gordner Collection

Creation Date

1909

The Theodore Roosevelt quote on this postcard reads: “It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”

Collection

Fritz R. Gordner Collection

Creation Date

1910

Theodore Roosevelt is sending Robert Harry Munro Ferguson a memento of his African trip made from rhinoceros hide. He suggests that Isabella Ferguson could use it as a card case. Roosevelt wishes he could see Ferguson and is dreading an upcoming trip.

Collection

Arizona Historical Society

Creation Date

1911-02-02

Theodore Roosevelt standing with dead rhinoceros, holding dead buzzard and shotgun.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

Creation Date

1909-1910

Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt stand with a dead rhinoceros.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site

Creation Date

1909

Handwritten draft of life history descriptions of African game animals. The descriptions were published in Life Histories of African Game Animals.

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1914

Theodore Roosevelt and Kermit Roosevelt are approaching the end of their trip and are content with their efforts. They are anxious to see their family again. The camp was almost burned a few nights ago, but the fire was fought off and the naturalists proved admirable in an emergency. They both remain healthy but must get sick soon to “make Africa justify its reputation.”

Collection

Harvard College Library

Creation Date

1910-01-17

Part of “Theodore Roosevelt: His Life Reviewed in Pictures,” this photo shows Theodore Roosevelt posing with a dead rhinoceros during his post-presidential safari. Caption on verso summarizes how Roosevelt became president and lists some of his accomplishments.

Collection

Dickinson State University

Creation Date

1909-1910

Theodore Roosevelt informs W. Robert Foran he has received the cables. Roosevelt provides a statement in support of Robert E. Peary’s expedition success to be published if the reports of his success in the North Pole is true. Roosevelt is confused by the cable about Frederick Albert Cook because he is unaware of who the man is or what he has accomplished. He informs Foran he and Kermit Roosevelt have had success hunting elephants and rhinoceros together, but they will soon separate to travel and hunt separately.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-09-12

Theodore Roosevelt informs W. Robert Foran he has received the cables. Roosevelt provides a statement in support of Robert E. Peary’s expedition success to be published if the reports of his success in the North Pole is true. Roosevelt is confused by the cable about Frederick Albert Cook because he is unaware of who the man is or what he has accomplished. He informs Foran he and Kermit Roosevelt have had success hunting elephants and rhinoceros together, but they will soon separate to travel and hunt separately.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-09-12