Young Naturalist

Part of Theodore Roosevelt Memorial.

"It is an incalculable added pleasure...to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature." -Theodore Roosevelt

October 27, 1858

Theodore Roosevelt Born: Born at 28 E. 20th St, New York City.

June 1862

Patricia O'Toole: Roosevelt struggles with asthma throughout childhood; turns to fresh, outdoor air for relief.

1867

Photograph of young boy, Theodore Roosevelt, wearing dark tailored jacket and leaning one arm against a chair.

Roosevelt obtains a seal skull: The specimen leads 8-year-old Theodore to begin the "Roosevelt Museum of Natural History."
© AMNH

A Rare New York City Find: Roosevelt took an early interest in natural history. When he spied a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) that had been killed at the harbor, he took careful measurements and acquired the skull for display in his museum.
© AMNH

Handwritten page titled "History of the Museum."

“That seal filled me with every possible feeling of romance and adventure,” Roosevelt would write in his autobiography. He pursued that feeling by expanding his museum, collecting animal skeletons, tadpoles, minerals, bird nests and insects, housing the specimens in his boyhood bedroom.
© AMNH

1869

Spine of an embossed copy of Darwin's The Origin of Species.

Reads Darwin's Origin: On the Origin of Species (1859) revolutionized scientific thinking and inspires Roosevelt to continue his natural history study.

April 6, 1869

Historical illustration of the exterior of the American Museum of Natural History with about 20 people standing outside.

American Museum of Natural History: The American Museum of Natural History is cofounded by Theodore Roosevelt Sr. The AMNH charter is signed in the Roosevelt home.
© AMNH

Painted portrait of Theodore Roosevelt Sr., seated and wearing a suit.

Founding AMNH: Theodore’s father, Roosevelt Sr., was one of a group of men who founded AMNH. By 1871, the first exhibits were on display at the Central Park Arsenal, on the eastern edge of Central Park.
© AMNH

Historical photograph of the first building of the American Museum of Natural History, surrounded by flat, open ground.

The Museum’s First Building: In 1874, President Ulysses S. Grant laid the cornerstone of the Museum’s first permanent building on 77^th St. Three and a half years later, the building opened to the public.
© AMNH

Carl Akeley standing on a stepladder, working on the upper leg of a large elephant taxidermy mount.

Pioneering Work: In 1913, Carl Akeley, a naturalist and major innovator in the art of nature dioramas, began planning the Hall of African Mammals. Today, the Museum’s habitat dioramas are widely considered the finest in the world.
© AMNH

Museum diorama featuring two mountain lions on a mountain ledge, overlooking a rocky valley.

Current Work at AMNH: Now one of the world’s largest natural history museums, AMNH houses more than 32 million specimens and artifacts. In 2012, the Museum reopened the Hall of North American Mammals (above) after extensive restoration.
© AMNH

Interior of the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, with three rounded benches creating a circle.

At AMNH | Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall (Floor 1): This hall and the rotunda upstairs are New York State's official monument to Theodore Roosevelt, the only New York City native to become president. Roosevelt's fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, laid the cornerstone in 1931. Franklin recalled that Theodore told him as a boy, "You can learn more about nature and life in the Museum than in all the books and schools in the world."
© AMNH

1871

Taxidermist John Bell, photographed from the chest up.

Learns Taxidermy: To preserve the birds he collects, Roosevelt learns taxidermy from John Bell, a famous taxidermist and colleague of wildlife artist John James Audubon.

1871

Douglas Brinkley: Roosevelt's first glasses changed his life: "I had no idea how beautiful the world was until I got those spectacles."

March 1872

Historical photograph of people standing around an active geyser in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Created: President Grant creates America's first national park. Later, Roosevelt protects bison there.
© AMNH

Portrait of Ulysses S. Grant from the shoulders up.

Creating the First National Park: After an official exploratory team returned with photographs, paintings and tales of adventure in the region, President Ulysses S. Grant (above) set aside 2.2 million acres, creating the first national park.
© AMNH

Theodore Roosevelt stands outside of a pitched tent, wearing a wide brimmed hat.

Roosevelt in Yellowstone: President Grant’s legislation did not protect forest or wildlife in Yellowstone, so Roosevelt worked to protect bison populations within the park through efforts of the Boone and Crockett Club, which he cofounded in 1887.
© AMNH

Map of Yellowstone National Park represented in one color, and the greater Yellowstone area surrounding it represented in a different color.

The Greater Yellowstone Area: Yellowstone National Park (yellow) still protects 2.2 million acres of land. But the greater Yellowstone area (green) covers another 28 million acres—unprotected land that is actually crucial to the survival of the park’s inhabitants.
© AMNH

Four elk graze snow-covered grass, with some trees in the background.

Food for elk (Cervus elaphus), pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) and other animals in Yellowstone National Park is abundant during the summer months. But in the winter, when the grasses that they eat are covered by snow, animals move to lower elevations—outside the park—to find food.
© AMNH

Grassy area with a crane and three cylindrical drums in the distance. There are snowy mountains in the farther background.

Habitat fragmentation—the breaking up of large areas of habitat by roads, housing and industry—threatens unprotected winter feeding grounds. Environmental organizations are working to protect those critical areas and their animal inhabitants by monitoring development and creating corridors of undeveloped land.
© AMNH

A fox stands among tall grass on the side of a small river.

A wildlife corridor was initiated in 1993 in an effort to connect parks and open spaces from Wyoming to Canada’s Yukon. Spanning nearly 2,000 miles, the corridor stretches over mountains, through forests and across arctic tundra, providing animals a travel route with little human interference.
© AMNH

October 1872

Theodore Roosevelt as a child, seated on the floor in the middle, surrounded by eight people.

Travels to Egypt: Roosevelt (here on Nile River, seated on floor, second from right) keeps a detailed natural history journal. He writes that a grass warbler "is very active, and sings sweetly."
© AMNH

Museum diorama of seven passenger pigeons among branches of a tree.

At AMNH | The Hall of New York City Birds (Floor 3): The passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), once one of the most abundant birds in North America, fell victim to both hunting and habitat destruction. This species was extinct in the wild by 1900. Among the many specimens Theodore Roosevelt contributed to the Museum's ornithology collection was a passenger pigeon he gave to Frank Chapman, the Museum's first curator of birds, in July 1908.
© AMNH

Fall 1876

Enters Harvard: Roosevelt starts out studying natural history, but by graduation his interests shift toward politics.
© AMNH

Full mammoth fossil skeleton at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Roosevelt took his youthful passion for nature with him to Harvard. He became vice president of Harvard’s Natural History Society and studied botany, anatomy and geology. Many of his science classes were held in Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology (above).
© AMNH

Group photo of sixteen members of the Harvard Porcellian Club in three rows, with Theodore Roosevelt in the second row, second from left.

Roosevelt (second row, second from left) was successful at Harvard. He was a member of the elite Porcellian Club (above), editor of the Harvard Advocate and had strong friendships. While he struggled with courses like Greek and Latin, he was a good student, graduating cum laude.
© AMNH

Alice Hathaway Lee (seated, to the left), Theodore Roosevelt (standing on the right) and a third person seated beside Alice.

At Harvard, Roosevelt fell in love with Alice Hathaway Lee (left), and unabashedly courted her. Though she turned down his first marriage proposal, they were engaged by graduation. Meanwhile, his professional interests had shifted. “I intend to be one of the governing class,” he said.
© AMNH

1877

Title page of The Summer Birds of the Adirondacks in Franklin County, N.Y. by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

Publishes Summer Birds of the Adirondacks: The booklet gains him the attention of noted naturalist C. Hart Merriam and a listing in the 1877 Naturalists Directory.

June 1880

Edmund Morris: Roosevelt, with sighs set on becoming a politician, graduates from Harvard with honors.