Theodore Roosevelt on African Safari: An Oversize Photograph Inscribed to the Head of the American Museum of Natural History

The recipient sponsored his Amazon expedition

In his 1919 obituary for Theodore Roosevelt, the long-time head of the American Museum of Natural History, Henry Fairfield Osborne, wrote, "In the range of his life as a naturalist, as an observer, traveler, explorer, writer, and last but not least, a biological philosopher, as in the range of his work over the vast fields of history, of government, and of international relations, his service was stupendous; and now that we are able to look at his life as a whole, we realize that he was not one man, but many great men, many personalities, combined and harmonized into one,—all impelled by indomitable will and determination, all inspired by idealism, all warmed and humanized by the most loving and sympathetic temperament."

Roosevelt was a uniquely American president: a moral, military, political, and scientific force, who knew the halls of power in Washington and New York, but also the great American West, where he had lived as a cattle rancher in North Dakota in the 1880s.  He was an outdoorsman, a hunter, and a naturalist, who not only began an era of American political and military strength, and was a progressive reformer, but could discuss flora and fauna with authority, and was instrumental in establishing our system of national parks and forests.  In his travels, which included African safaris and scientfic expeditions into the heart of uncharted Amazonia, he helped to build the great collections at America's leading natural history museums.  Few can claim to have ruled a nation, discovered new species, led military missions, and charted unexplored territories.  TR did that and more.

Roosevelt loved the outdoor life. Born with physical ailments, he saw these as a challenge. His son Kermit tells of TR's trips with his children, in which he would challenge them to get from point A to point B moving only in a straight line, going around nothing, not even a river or mountain, to arrive at the destination.  In crucial moments of his life, he sought the solace of the outdoors.  When his wife and mother died, he looked to a rancher's life in the West.  And when the tumult of politics was over and his second presidential term had passed, he embarked on his African Safari.  Here he gathered specimens for the Smithsonian.  In 1913, after his failed 1912 bid for the Presidency at the head of the Progressive Party ticket, Roosevelt again looked to outdoor exploration, a trip into one of the least hospitable, least known regions of the world – the heart of the Amazon.  Although the trip began as a speaking tour, the scale of the Amazon's challenges proved tempting.  

He contacted Henry Fairfield Osborne, the young paleontologist (he had named the Tyrannosaurus Rex) and head of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and a fellow naturalist.  That Museum was the epicenter of the naturalist's world and was active in promoting such trips.  Osborne set about helping Roosevelt to plan his expedition, making introductions.  When TR later chose to explore the River of Doubt (now the Roosevelt River), Osborne was mortified, as he had opposed any trip that would endanger the former President, who was under his auspices.  TR survived (barely) and came home to describe his trip to a gathering at the Museum.

The same year he left for the Amazon, Roosevelt published his autobiography.  In one of its most famous passages, he writes, "There are many kinds of success in life worth having.  It is exceedingly interesting and attractive to be a successful businessman, or rail road man, or farmer or a successful lawyer or doctor, or a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and lions…. the greatest happiness is the happiness that comes as a by-product of striving to do what must be done, even though sorrow is met in the doing.  There is a bit of homely philosophy…. which sums up one's duty in life, 'Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.'"  This now-famous quote is how TR lived his life, and it may very well have kept him alive in the trip he was about to undertake.  And it shows the character that made him the great man and president he was.

Imposing photograph signed, approximately 11 by 16 inches, taken in 1909 during his African safari, showing him with characteristic grit, vested in his hunting attire, inscribed to Osborne.  "To Henry Fairfield Osborne of the American Museum of Natural History, from an American faunal naturalist. Theodore Roosevelt.  'Do what you can with what you have where you are.'"  Although there is no date on the photograph, we presume it do be from late 1918, as he wrote an essay for Osborne's museum publication at that time entitled "A Faunal Naturalist in South America."  The next year, he would die.

This signed photograph is the most evocative we have ever seen, capturing the scope of TR's character and way of looking at life and success.  Seeing this image of a gritty explorer on safari evokes the bulldog image of Churchill captured decades later.  One must think to be reminded that the man captured in this image in 1909, just a few months earlier, had led the American people.