Part of Theodore Roosevelt Memorial.
© AMNH/D. Finnin At the center of the hall, a bronze sculpture of Theodore Roosevelt depicts him as he looked during a famous 1903 camping trip to Yosemite with naturalist John Muir.
Roosevelt recalled a night sleeping under the sequoias during the camping trip, writing that “It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man.” Soon after this return, Roosevelt began persuading Congress to add Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley to Yosemite National Park, a measure that succeeded in 1906.