Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition

The Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition was an expedition to Africa led by outgoing American president Theodore Roosevelt and outfitted by the Smithsonian Institution.[1] Its purpose was to collect specimens for the Smithsonian's new Natural History museum, now known as the National Museum of Natural History.


The party set sail from New York City on the steamer Hamburg on March 23, 1909, shortly after the end of Roosevelt's presidency on March 4.[2] The party landed in Mombasa, British East Africa (now Kenya), traveled to the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) before following the Nile to Khartoum in modern Sudan.

Roosevelt and his companions killed or trapped approximately 11,397[4] animals. According to Theodore Roosevelt’s own tally, the figure included about four thousand birds, two thousand reptiles and amphibians, five hundred fish, and 4,897 mammals (other sources put this figure at 5,103).

Add to this marine, land and freshwater shells, crabs, beetles and other invertebrates, not to mention several thousand plants, and the number of natural history specimens totals 23,151.[4] A separate collection was made of ethnographic objects.

The material took eight years to catalogue. The larger animals shot by Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt are listed on pages 457 to 459 of his book African Game Trails.

Tons of salted animals and their skins were shipped to Washington, D.C.; the quantity took years to mount, and the Smithsonian shared many duplicate animals with other museums.

Regarding the large number of animals taken, Roosevelt said, "I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned."[5]


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