"The Arrival" Giclée canvas print: 18"x24", edition size 100 s/n $1,035 unframed

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Nearly a month after leaving New York on March 21, 1909, Teddy Roosevelt’s massive scientific expedition arrived in Mombassa British East Africa and boarded the “Lunatic Express” train for the interior.

TR must have been impressed by the sight, as they pulled into the station at Kapiti Plains. The rows and rows of tents, hundreds of Swahili porters, askaris (native soldiers), and syces (horse boys); Goanese Cooks, Somali gun bearers and WaKamba and WaLiangulu trackers, looking as though they were about to embark on a huge military exercise.

It took some three days to unpack all the crates and supplies, assemble the mules, ox carts, and camp equipment, and get themselves organized. Abercrombie and Fitch supplied the equipment, Newland and Tarlton who had only been formed for a few years, were the outfitters for the safari. Indeed Tarlton himself was one of the white hunters for the safari.

This painting is my interpretation of what it might have been like as members of the safari, anxious to get underway, gathered around TR to discuss and anticipate what was in store for the eleven month long expedition to gather specimens for the Smithsonian in Washington and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. An American flag flies in front of the President’s tent. Kermit sits with his back to the viewer while the bearded R.J. Cunninghame, the safari leader, is in characteristic deep animated conversation with the President. Other members of the group could be Leslie Tarlton and Edmond Heller, one the naturalists on the expedition. Unable to wait until morning TR and Kermit went on their first hunt this evening.