[Americana - Theodore Roosevelt - Big Game Hunting - Signed] Unique Association Copy of Signed Limited Roosevelt, African Game Trails, Extra-Illustrated with 18 Vintage Photographs by John Andrew Loring, Added Ephemera, and Signed Twice by Teddy Roosevelt

Roosevelt, Theodore. AFRICAN GAME TRAILS AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN HUNTER-NATURALIST. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1910. 2 Volumes. First Edition, Limited to 500 sets of which this is #21, Signed. Each volume is 10 by 6 1/2 inches in a modern fine binding of 1/2 red morocco and marbled boards with gilt ruling to all covers and gilt printed black leather labels to the spines. The binding was done in 1975 by J. Gunner & M. Crelli. "African Game Trails" is Theodore Roosevelt's account of the famous "Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition," undertaken in March of 1909 and spanning 10 months. Participants in the expedition included: Kermit Roosevelt, Edgar Alexander Mearns, John Andrew Loring, R.J. Cunninghame, and Edmund Heller and many others. This set of "African Game Trails," in addition to being signed on the limitation page by T.R., also bears an inserted page with Roosevelt's handwritten inscription: " Inscribed for that first class sportsman and devoted game protector John M. Phillips with the Xmas greeting of his friend Theodore Roosevelt at the request of W.T. Hornaday Dec 23d 1910." John M. Phillips (1861-1953) was a prominent Pittsburgh industrialist (Phillips Mine and Mill Supply Co.) and conservationist. Phillips was one of the founders of the Boy Scout movement in America having held the first Scout meeting in Pennsylvania in his own home in Carrick, Pa. Late in life he received the Hornaday Conservation Award from the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. This is an "Extra-Illustrated" set with 14 original vintage photographs by John A. Loring bound in, plus several other ephemeral items related to the expedition.

Volume I: on a preliminary blank page is pasted in a copy of the C.M. Bell portrait of T.R.; on the dedication page are two original photos - Kermit with a felled lion, and a distant shot of African tribesmen; on the verso of the map in the front is mounted T.R.'s baggage receipt from Hamburg America Line - Naples Cabin; opposite the table of contents page is an original photograph of "The Colonel in Camp;" on page xiv is mounted an original photograph showing T.R., Cunninghame, and Mearns on a railroad car; mounted to the 1/2 title is a folding map of the expedition route; mounted to page 81 is an original photograph of Cunninghame; mounted to page 197 is a photograph of Kermit; at the last text page of Volume I is a "copy letter," duplicate, of a 150 word letter from T.R. to Loring regarding the expedition; at the very rear of the volume are mounted 8 additional original photographs of the action of the expedition, most credited to Loring.

Volume II: opens with 4 "extra" portrait prints of T.R. mounted to the blank preliminary pages; at the end of the table of contents page is mounted an original photograph of a "native ex-soldier" standing with a rifle; at the end of the table of illustrations is mounted a pencilled note from one of the expedition guides "asking for a tip," with an added explanatory note by John A. Loring at the bottom; on the verso of the 1/2 title is mounted an original photograph captioned, "the porter who was mauled by a lion and repaired by Dr. Mearns;" at page 480 is bound in a 3 page note from S.T. Lydford to Dr. Mearns dated Oct. 5, '09 from West Kenia regarding hunting activities; pasted in to pages 482/483 are a manuscript "field note from Heller to Loring" related to specimens, and two "expedition tickets," with the caption "The world at large entertains the idea that this was the Roosevelt African Expedition: and it will continue to do so, to the end of the chapter. WTH"; on page 488 are pasted two original photos of Mount Kenia (sic.); on page 490 is another photo of Mt. Kenia; at the very end of the volume is bound in the rare program and menu for a dinner in Roosevelt's honor at the Waldorf-Astoria, "The Welcome camp-fire built for Theodore Roosevelt by the Camp-fire Club of America, June 22nd 1910," 10 pages with a portrait lithograph cover.

A small percentage of the pages in both volumes are unopened; otherwise the set is in Very Good to Fine condition in a Fine binding.

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