Manuscript and printed textual material, photographic prints and negatives, slides, audio tapes, film, original and reproduction artwork, maps, scrapbooks, and historical and natural artifacts related to the history of African exploration and natural history, dating primarily from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Includes correspondence, drafts of publications, diaries, account books, ephemera, posters, newsclippings, biographies, memoirs, portraits, and the former personal property of selected explorers, big game hunters, missionaries, pioneers, and naturalists in Africa.
Scope and Contents note:
Manuscript and printed textual material, photographic prints and negatives, slides, audio tapes, film, original and reproduction artwork, maps, scrapbooks, and historical and natural artifacts related to the history of African exploration and natural history, dating primarily from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Includes correspondence, drafts of publications, diaries, account books, ephemera, posters, newsclippings, biographies, memoirs, portraits, and the former personal property of selected explorers, big game hunters, missionaries, pioneers, and naturalists in Africa. The Train Collection is particularly strong in archival materials on the following topics: the search for the source of the Nile and the progress of other exploring expeditions in Africa; the collecting of specimens of African animals, plants, and ethnological materials for zoos and museums (including a significant body of correspondence and photographs from the Smithsonian African Expedition in 1909-1910, led by President Theodore Roosevelt); and the growth of the African wildlife conservation movement. Besides Roosevelt, the major persons represented in the Collection include the journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley and members of his Emin Pasha Relief Expedition (Thomas Heazle Parke, Robert H. Nelson, James S. Jameson, John Rose Troup, William Bonny, William G. Stairs, Edmund Barttelot, and Arthur J. M. Jephson); the medical missionary Dr. David Livingstone and his father-in-law Robert Moffat; taxidermist Carl Akeley; zoologist Edmund Heller; hunter Frederick Courtenay Selous; artist and adventure writer A. Radclyffe Dugmore; explorers Samuel White Baker, Thomas Baines, Richard Francis Burton and E.J. Glave; anthropologist Paul Belloni du Chaillu; and royal traveler Edward VIII (later Duke of Windsor). Consult the finding aid for more specific information on materials relating to these persons and other people and organizations represented in the Collection.
Arrangement note:
Organized into ten series, primarily based on format or creator: I. Artifacts, 1663-1999; II. Works of Art, 1663-1999; III. Books, 1900-1986; IV. Edmund Heller personal papers, 1875-1939; V. Manuscripts, 1663-1992; VI. Maps, 1878; VII. Newspapers, 1888-1987; VIII. Robert Henry Nelson personal papers, 1795-1912; VIII. Photographs, 1874-1963; IX. Posters and broadsides, 1814-1955; X. Russell E. Train personal papers, 1956-2004.
Separated Materials note:
In addition to these archival and non-book materials, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries acquired more than 1500 printed books as part of the Russell E. Train Collection; these books are listed individually in the SIRIS (Smithsonian Institution Research Information System) online catalog.
Provenance:
Originally assembled by the Honorable Russell E. Train, a former judge, top administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and a past president of the World Wildlife Fund, this collection was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution Libraries in 2004.
Rights:
The collection is housed in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, which is open to researchers Monday through Friday in the afternoons, from 1:30 to 5:00 p.m.; morning visits are by appointment only. Please call (202) 633-1184 or email AskaLibrarian@si.edu for an appointment.
Topic:
Zoological specimens -- Collection and preservation -- Africa Search this
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890. Autograph letter signed, to the British Assistant Political Resident at Aden [William M. Coghlan], from Camp Aden
Russell E. Train Africana Collection (Smithsonian. Libraries) Search this
Extent:
1 Item (Correspondence, 8 x 12.75 in.)
Container:
Item M020
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1855 February 21
Scope and Contents note:
Regarding Speke's troubles in Somaliland, "... Lt. Speke ... a member of the Somali Expedition has reported to me in the strongest terms the bad conduct of Mhammed Samattar (sic) his Abar guide ..., Lt. Speke has been plundered, threatened, detained, & impeded from entering the country which he was directed to explore. If such conduct be allowed to pass unnoticed, or rather, I should say, if it be not visited with severe chastisement, I apprehend that it will be prejudicial to the future of the Expedition ... I have directed Lt. Speke to call at your office today and supported by his two ministers ... to proffer a special complaint."
General note:
William Marcus Coghlan was British Assistant Political Resident at Aden from 1854-1863.
Collection Rights:
The collection is housed in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, which is open to researchers Monday through Friday in the afternoons, from 1:30 to 5:00 p.m.; morning visits are by appointment only. Please call (202) 633-1184 or email AskaLibrarian@si.edu for an appointment.
Russell E. Train Africana Collection (Smithsonian. Libraries) Search this
Extent:
1 Item (Correspondence, 3.5 x 5.25 in.)
Container:
Item M021
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1821 - 1890
Scope and Contents note:
"Corrected proofs and ms. returned." Requests return of a book which he had loaned. Says he has to hurry and that his time is short.
General note:
On stationery with engraved Arabic lettering at top.
Collection Rights:
The collection is housed in the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History, which is open to researchers Monday through Friday in the afternoons, from 1:30 to 5:00 p.m.; morning visits are by appointment only. Please call (202) 633-1184 or email AskaLibrarian@si.edu for an appointment.
Mission to Gelele, king of Dahome : with notices of the so-called "Amazons", the grand customs, the yearly customs, the human sacrifices, the present state of the slave trade, and the Negro's place in nature / by Richard F. Burton
Catalogue of valuable books, manuscripts & autographs letters of Sir Richard Francis Burton, 1821-1890 : many recorded for the first time including a fine portrait in oils
Title:
Catalogue of valuable books, manuscripts and autographs letters ..
The search for the source of the Nile : correspondence between Captain Richard Burton, Captain John Speke and others, from Burton's unpublished East African Letter Book; together with other related letters and papers in the collection of Quentin Keynes, Esq. / edited and with a biographical commentary by Donald Young ; and with a preface by Quentin Keynes
Résumé historique de l'exploration à la recherche des grands lacs de l'Afrique oriental faite en 1857-1858 par R.F. Burton et J.H. Speke / par V.A. Malte-Brun
