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
John Guille Millais autograph letter signed, concluding with a pen and ink sketch, to "Dear Fred" (Frederick Courtenay Selous), from Horsham, Sussex, 8 October 1911
Frederick Courteney Selous autograph letter signed to his publishers, Richard Bentley and Son, on Royal Geographical Society letterhead but amended to "28 Gloucester Road, Regents Park", dated 14 January 1898
Frederick Courteney Selous autograph title page for African nature notes and reminiscences, bearing Selous' signature, together with a typescript of the Preface
Russell E. Train Africana Collection (Smithsonian. Libraries) Search this
Extent:
1 Item (Correspondence, 4.5 x 7 in.)
Container:
Item M132
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1893
Scope and Contents note:
Selous declines to contribute to a wedding gift for the Duke of York and Princess Mary of Teck.
General note:
Correspondent tentatively identified as E. P. Mathers, author of Zambesia. M132 is the accession number in the Russell E. Train inventory list of the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History.
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, 4 x 6 in.)
Container:
Item M133
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1894 December 25
Scope and Contents note:
Concerns a possible candidate for his next collecting trip to Matabeleland. Selous also reports that he had been unable to see Rhodes or Jameson.
General note:
M133 is the accession number in the Russell E. Train inventory list of the Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History. Correspondent "Thomas" has not been identified.
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.
