Roosevelt Expedition Collected 23,151 Specimens

From 1909 to 1910, former US President Theodore Roosevelt led a Smithsonian-sponsored expedition funded by American industrialist Andrew Carnegie through British East Africa, the Belgian Congo, and Sudan. The party killed or trapped about 11,397 animals for museum collections, while Roosevelt and his 19-year-old son Kermit personally killed 512 larger specimens. After adding plants, shells, beetles, and other material, the complete natural history collection totaled 23,151 specimens. Smithsonian naturalists spent eight years cataloging everything and distributed many duplicate animals to other museums.

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