Newspaper clippings and personal accounts of the 1913 expedition document malaria infections and the wound Roosevelt sustained when he plunged into the river, trying
to save a capsized canoe. The newspaper clippings also include information about the specimens collected during the expedition for the American Museum of Natural History.
For documentation on the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition, see record unit 7179.
This collection was compiled chiefly by the Roosevelt Memorial Association, Inc., created in memory of Theodore Roosevelt shortly after his death in 1919. The Association's
goals included perpetuating Roosevelt's ideals; developing and maintaining a memorial park at Oyster Bay, New York; and constructing a memorial to him.
This record unit consists of newspaper clippings and magazine and journal articles, which document Theodore Roosevelt's activities as a naturalist. Additional material
contains reminiscences of Roosevelt's friends during their association with him.
The newspaper, magazine, and journal articles focus on Roosevelt's conservation activities. They highlight the 1909 Smithsonian-Roosevelt Expedition to Africa and the Roosevelt-Rondon
South American Expedition in 1913.
Historical Note:
In 1913, Theodore Roosevelt and his party sailed by boat along some of the Amazon River's tributaries, exploring and mapping parts of Paraguay and western Brazil. Among
the tributaries Roosevelt and one of his companions, Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon, charted in detail was the River of Doubt, later named Rio Teodoro after Roosevelt.