Details
ROOSEVELT, Theodore. Autograph letter signed ("Theodore Roosevelt"), as former President, to Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857-1935), ON SAFARI, [Nairobi, Kenya] 26 October 1909. 4 pages, 8vo, in pencil.
LOOKING FOR A HOME FOR "MY BULL ELEPHANT" KILLED ON T. R.'S FABLED POST-PRESIDENTIAL SAFARI
Halfway through his Kenyan safari, Roosevelt offers one of his kills to his friend Osborn, the director of New York's Museum of Natural History. "Since last writing to you it has occurred to me that it is possible that even tho [Carl] Akeley does not want my bull elephant for his group you may like it for the Museum anyhow. It is simply an average bull, about 40 years old, corresponding in age to a five year old horse; it is an average herd or breeding bull, with tusks of the ordinary Kenia type, better than corresponding tusks from South Africa or Somaliland, poorer than those from Mt. Elgon or the Congo. Now, my dear fellow, I hope I need not say that I thoroly understand that you may not want the elephant at all; it might be worse than useless to you. But on the off chance I thought I had better write to you direct..." Roosevelt hunted big game in Africa from April 1909 until March 1910. When he set sail, his political foe J. P. Morgan famously hoped some lion would "do its duty." But Roosevelt returned, and after publishing his masterful account of this 11-month adventure, African Game Trails, he resumed his political life not as a GOP "elephant" but as a Progressive "Bull Mooser," attacking his successor, William Howard Taft, and running against both Taft and Wilson in the 1912 presidential contest. Letters from Roosevelt's African safari are notably rare.
LOOKING FOR A HOME FOR "MY BULL ELEPHANT" KILLED ON T. R.'S FABLED POST-PRESIDENTIAL SAFARI
Halfway through his Kenyan safari, Roosevelt offers one of his kills to his friend Osborn, the director of New York's Museum of Natural History. "Since last writing to you it has occurred to me that it is possible that even tho [Carl] Akeley does not want my bull elephant for his group you may like it for the Museum anyhow. It is simply an average bull, about 40 years old, corresponding in age to a five year old horse; it is an average herd or breeding bull, with tusks of the ordinary Kenia type, better than corresponding tusks from South Africa or Somaliland, poorer than those from Mt. Elgon or the Congo. Now, my dear fellow, I hope I need not say that I thoroly understand that you may not want the elephant at all; it might be worse than useless to you. But on the off chance I thought I had better write to you direct..." Roosevelt hunted big game in Africa from April 1909 until March 1910. When he set sail, his political foe J. P. Morgan famously hoped some lion would "do its duty." But Roosevelt returned, and after publishing his masterful account of this 11-month adventure, African Game Trails, he resumed his political life not as a GOP "elephant" but as a Progressive "Bull Mooser," attacking his successor, William Howard Taft, and running against both Taft and Wilson in the 1912 presidential contest. Letters from Roosevelt's African safari are notably rare.