The Russell E. Train Africana Collection: An Archival Safari

Diane ShawSmithsonian Institution LibrariesArchives Fair, October 22, 2010

The Hon. Russell E. Train (Right), With His Friend Joseph F. Cullman 3rd

Judge Russell E. Train

• Background in Law (Attorney, Specialist in Tax Law, and a Judge in Tax Court)

• Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency From 1973-1977

• Former President of The Conservation Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund

• Collected Books About Africa Since Boyhood; First Visited Africa in 1950s with His Wife Aileen

• SIL Acquired His Collection in 2004 (With Later Additions)

Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History

What is the Russell E. Train Africana Collection About?

• Big Game Hunting and African Safaris, Wildlife Conservation, and European and American Explorers in Africa

• Chiefly 18th and 19th Century Materials, Although Includes Items from 1663 Through 1996

• Topics Complement Smithsonian Collections in Natural History, African Art, and the History of the Smithsonian

What’s in the Russell E. Train Collection?

• Over 1500 Printed Books• Approximately 1500 Unbound Manuscripts• 85 Bound Manuscripts and Scrapbooks• 4000 Photographic Prints• 20 Maps• Newsclippings• 270 Artworks• 100 Human-Created and Natural Artifacts

Memorabilia and Publications from President Theodore Roosevelt’s African Safari with Edmund Heller, 1909-1910

Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt with a Rhinoceros shot

Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt with a Rhinoceros Shot During His 1909-1910 African Safari

The photograph was taken by his son, Kermit Roosevelt

How is the Collection Organized?

• Received With a Preliminary List of Items With Short Descriptions

• SIL Received a Grant from the Smithsonian’s Collections Care and Preservation Fund for an Collections Assessment and Preservation Review in 2007

• Created an MS Access Database Linked to Low-Resolution JPEG Files

Russell E. Train Database Record for the Photograph of Theodore Roosevelt with Dead Rhinoceros, 1909

Poster for Lecture Tour “Snapping Live Game on the Roosevelt Trail”, by A. Radclyffe Dugmore

Unpublished typescript of “Looking Over My Shoulder”, a memoir of adventures in Africa by Major A. Radclyffe Dugmore, with illustrations by the author

Diary of J. Leonard Reid, 1904Reid was a Native Commissioner in the Central Africa Protectorate (Nyasaland), now known as Malawi. His diary describes local politics, wildlife seen in the area, tax collecting, and other details of daily life

East African Safari Photograph Album, 1914created by Hugh Cholmondeley Delamere

A lion’s claw is attached at the bottom of the album

Portrait of Sir Thomas Dewar with dead lion

Scrapbook of newspaper clippings, articles, and photos of Rhodesian "Liondogs" (Ridgebacks)

Scrapbook created by A. Sydney Waller, ca. 1923

Robert Henry Nelson Collection of Materials on the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 1886-1889

(Parke, Nelson, Stanley, Stairs, & Jephson shown)

Medicine Chest owned by Capt. Robert Henry Nelson, circa 1887

David Livingstone’s 10-Bore Gun, Manufactured Circa 1860 by Hollis & Son

This gun was returned to England with Livingstone’s body after his death in 1873

SIL Online Exhibition, “The Art of African Exploration”

Livingstone Online: A Digital Collection of the Writings of David Livingstone

National Museum of Natural History Website on the 1909-1910 Roosevelt African Expedition

Some Images are on SIL’s Flickr Site

SI Flickr Image of an 1872 Portrait of Henry Morton Stanley and Kalulu, from the Train Collection

Some of the Comments about the Stanley Portrait on Flickr

SI Archives Blog, “The Bigger Picture”, Discussing the Flickr Page with Stanley’s Portrait

What’s Next?

• 2010 SI Collections Care and Preservation Fund Grant for Preservation Treatment of 16 Scrapbooks

• Cataloging of Sub-Groups and Individual Items• Encoded Archival Description Finding Aid• Increased Access to the Materials Through

Digitization and Collaborative Projects

Thank You for Coming to the Smithsonian Archives Fair!

For Questions about the Russell E. Train Collection, contact the Cullman Library Staff

Telephone: 202.633.1184E-mail: libmail@si.edu