Books by Roosevelt and Hornaday

This Auction will end on Tuesday, Dec 3rd, at 5 pm.  

Theodore Roosevelt and William Temple Hornaday.   “Teddy” probably needs no introduction.  26^th US President, Rough Rider, Hunter …. Author?   Oh yes.

 William Temple Hornaday might need a bit more of an introduction.  Hornaday is most noted as the turn of the last Century zoologist, conservationist, taxidermist (he did the bison herd and dozens of other mounts for the Smithsonian) and author … a very very prolific writer.¹  He was employed for most of his career by the Smithsonian in DC.  There, he catalogued, collected, preserved, displayed and promoted American Natural History .. in a huge way.

Roosevelt and Hornaday were collectively largely responsible for documenting both the slaughter of bison in the 1800’s and the efforts of a few individuals to prevent extinction.  By doing both, they were furthering conservation and laying the foundation for the spectacular bison herds we have today.   Thank you Teddy and W.T.!

Hornaday was a founder of the original American Bison Society in 1905.  Actually, he established the National Zoological Park  (today called  the Bronx Zoo) … and “they” were the ABS founding fathers.  The American Bison Society was created in 1905, with the stated “Mission - To prevent the extinction of the American bison by establishing bison herds on protected lands and advocating for legislation to safeguard the species”.  That was mostly due to Hornaday actually physically traveling to every know bison and/or bison herd – all then private and physically counting each one himself.  He counted less than 1000.²   He also got an estimate from some Canadian counterparts to “complete” is count.    His report on “The Extermination of the American Bison” was published in the Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year 1887, Part 2. The report was published in by the Government Printing Office in 1889.  It is available on-line to read if you want ….It is fascinating.  These was also a map Hornaday created to document his message showing current bison range and various estimated bison range and population – that in a very few years our “citizens and military” decimated the bison population.  (We have copies of that map for sale and an actual original of that map – framed - also for anyone interested – the lines are the folds necessitated to get it into the published volume  was the actual report.) 

As to the American Bison Society of 1905, Hornaday was the first President and Teddy Rosevelt was the Honorary President.  By 1929,  “countable” inventory of bison was at 3,385 animals total animals, encouraging enough that the Society discontinued its programs and disbanded in 1935.³ 

So why all the introduction?   Offered now for your consideration here are four (4) old books – two by Roosevelt; two by Hornaday.   The “newest” is still 100 years old.  The oldest came out in 1896.

They are:  Roosevelt’s “Winning of the West” – Vol III (copyright 1889, pub.1896) and his “Stories from Winning of the West”  (copyright 1900, pub 1920)

And Hornaday’s “The American Natural History” (copyright and pub 1904) and his “Tales From Nature’s Wonderlands” (copyright and pub 1924).

There are lots and lots more writings by both guys; they were both prolific writers (though there is a persistent “rumor” that Roosevelt had “help”.   These 4 volumes, all of which are in good to very good condition (though there is page foxing, prior owners marks and in one a small bit of interior binding coming loose) are wonderful historical reading – a good part of which directly or indirectly involves bison.  What is also does it give the reader more insight into what it must have been like to live on the edge – the edge of bison extinction, where we would not have the majestic herds of today.  All four books are quite rare, thought there have been some reprints done.  But finding them together is unlikely … other than here for this 12 Days of Christmas  - 2024.

100% of the sale proceeds will go directly to the National Bison Association.  We’ll explain how down the road … so the donation should be tax deductible for all above what we set as “value received”.