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...Johnson Film, Photographic & Ephemera Collections

Dedicated in 1961 to the memory of Martin and Osa Johnson, their remarkably varied achievements and their enormous contribution to the expansion of knowledge of our planet, the Museum serves as a guardian and repository of an awesome treasure...This trove consists of that famed Kansas couple's epic explorational and wildlife motion pictures and thousands of still photos, their revealing field journals, detailed expedition reports to sponsors, extensive correspondence spanning half a century, and a variety of personal memorabilia that ranges from Osa's fishing hat, complete with flies, to Martins' cigar-holder...The Museum also houses an assortment of artifacts brought back from the primitive regions they explored, photographed and described in their bestselling books and the articles they published in the top-ranking newspapers and magazines of their era.

There is no question whatsoever that the greatest of their contributions consists of their photographic records of remote and little-known regions in the early decades of the current century...The Johnsons' motion pictures serve today as the ultimate documentation of wildernesses that have long since vanished; of tribal cultures and customs that have ceased to exist (as have even some of the tribes themselves); of game-choked savannahs that are now agricultural or urbanized lands or barren deserts over-grazed by domestic stock; of vast expanses of tropical forest that have been leveled for their timber... As woodlands were devastated, an overwhelming diversity of unique creatures that could not survive outside their shadowy world have been annihilated or survive only in relict groups that are ultimately doomed.

In Chanute, however, tangled forests of the Congo, Borneo and the Solomon Islands thrive...Gorillas still beat their massive chests with cupped hands and orangutan males roar territorial threats. Lions and cheetahs stalk prey on grassy plains that stretch to infinity...South Sea head dryers perform their grizzly funerary rites, hunting parties of pygmies move silently along Ituri forest trails, and Tenggara headhunters set forth in war parties near the upper reaches of Borneo's Kinabatangan River.

The Martin Johnsons made two expeditions to the South Seas in 1917 and 1919 (Martin had visited the Solomons and New Hebrides with Jack London, 1907-1909), two to Borneo in 1920 and 1935-1936, and five extended trips to Africa (one spanning four years!) between 1921 and 1934...Although their South Seas films brought them global fame at the time, it is the five African expeditions for which they are best remembered...They made "safari" and "simba" household words and Kenya's Nairobi more familiar to thousands throughout the world than New York or Los Angeles...The undeniable evidence and irrefutable explanation for the international impact they made during their lifetimes, and have left as a monumental legacy, remain for all to witness in Chanute's Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum.

Collection details

...Ethnographic Collections:
Africa, Borneo and the South Seas

Upon establishing the museum in 1961, Mrs. Belle Leighty, Osa Johnson's mother, sent out worldwide requests for artifact donations to help the museum in interpreting the lifestyles and customs of the people and regions visited by Martin and Osa...Often donors used Johnson photographs and film when seeking out artifacts to purchase for the museum...The earliest of these donations brought amazing musical instruments and weapons from Borneo, costumes and ritual artifacts from the South Seas and carvings and assorted ceremonial pieces from East, South and Central Africa.

In 1974 Dr. Pascal James Imperato, a life-long admirer of the Johnsons and friend of Mrs. Leighty, chose to express his veneration by establishing the Johnson Memorial Hall of African Culture, an exhibit of West African artifacts that represented more than thirty tribes of a dozen different countries...The original gift consisted of approximately 100 ceremonial masks and household items that the well-known author and health authority had assembled during five years of epidemiological work in Africa...The number has more than tripled through the years with the additional support of Eleanor Imperato, the doctor's wife who is herself a recognized authority on the Johnsons as well as from an assortment of new donors. ..The Imperato Collection has received wide acclaim as one of the finest displays of its type, according to such authorities as John Povey, Editor of African Arts and a selection from this collection is on permanent exhibit in the new Imperato African Gallery.

...Selsor Fine Arts Collection

In 1981 a new division of the Museum was named in honor of former publisher C. Jackson Selsor who, like Dr. Imperato, was an Honorary Trustee of the Museum and is a Life Fellow of the Explorers Club, an organization that played such a vital role in the careers of the Johnsons...The Gallery possesses original paintings or sketches by outstanding wildlife artists including Keulemans, Kuhnert, Rena, Edgar Payne, Kenyon, Busby, James Coe, Zimmerman, Carol Ogilvie, Gardner, Johnsgard, Donald Watson, Kleinbaum, Tony Angell and F.L. Jaques...There are also over 400 hand-colored lithographs designed by Gould, Catesby, Audubon, Wilson, Lear, Smith, Wolf, Robert Ridgway, Gronvold, Frohawk, Peale, Cassin, Leutemann, Prevost, Pretre, Werner, Vieillot, Bocourt and Barraband as well as signed prints by Sutton, O'Neill, Peterson and Scott.

Skilled craftsmanship through the centuries is reflected in a broad spectrum of carvings, bronze, brass, silver and gold statuary and religious objects, ceramics ranging from Egyptian shards of the Greco-Roman period to a Ming Dynasty monkey...Of particular note is a prize-winning bronze of a North African "Arab on the March" by Emile Pinedo, a work commissioned by Tiffany's for the Paris Exposition of 1889...Many of the Gallery's contents as well as a range of other artifacts in the ethnographic collection have been obtained by Mr. Selsor as he diligently retraced the footsteps of the Johnsons in Africa, Asia, Borneo and the South Seas.

...Stott Explorers Library

An Honorary Trustee as well as an Explorers Club Medalist and General Curator Emeritus of the San Diego Zoo prior to his 1995 death, Kenhelm W. Stott, Jr. suggested the development of what was intended to be no more than a functional working library for the benefit of visiting researchers...Since its 1980 dedication, however, it has become a large aggregation of books that have not only fulfilled that original premise but contain a truly astonishing proportion of first and/or signed editions, one-of-a-kind or unpublished expedition journals and lavish 19th century monographs illustrated with hand-colored plates by wildlife artists who created what in retrospect is viewed as the Golden Age of natural history books.

Contents of the Library fall into several major categories: fauna, flora, anthropology, geography and exploration with emphasis on, but not restricted to, regions photographed by the Johnsons...The section devoted to African exploration is exceptionally good, consisting of quantities of rare source material in its original form and its ornithology section is one of the largest and finest in the country...Facilities of the Library are available to students and scholars whose fields of research are suited to the Museum and its holdings.

Collection details

...Education Collection

The education department has received donations of a variety of artifacts and specially designed replicas for use in its classes and tour programs...These artifacts relate directly to the permanent collections and provide valuable hands-on learning experiences for students of all ages...Travel trunks filled with these artifacts are used by staff for outreach programs and may be loaned by schools and individuals for educational purposes anywhere in the world...To learn more about the current trunks, check out the education page.

...Natural History Collections

The museum has a small collection of animal trophies and skins, shells and rocks, and vegetable and plant specimens from around the world...These objects are used for exhibit enhancement and for research and study...As the Johnsons were naturalists and very concerned for the protection of wildlife, the museum follows their example in that all educational programming that includes these natural history specimens is geared to promote conservation and preservation of the world's remaining wild places and animals.

...Related Collections

Aside from the Johnson collections, the museum holdings include additional items and categories that are not only harmonious with material that forms the very core of the institution, but also serve to augment it, providing valued aids that enable visitors to have the fullest possible appreciation of other peoples and cultures.

...The Elizabeth Main Le Blond Photographic Collection

Forno Glacier, July 1889

In November of 2011 The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum received an unprecedented collection of over 2000 photographs and personal archives of Elizabeth Main Le Blond (1861-1934). Le Blond was an author and mountain climber who is also in contention for the title of the world�s first female filmmaker.

Le Blond was climbing mountains in Victorian skirts and shooting her extraordinary photographs of stunningly scenic glacial landscapes before Ansel Adams was born, and she is credited with pioneering the genre of sports films, covering the fields of hockey, bicycling, tobogganing and bobsleighing.

The collection is being processed now and an exhibition of the photos will be on display at the Safari Museum from June through September 2012.

Below are a few examples of the photographs in this collection, with more information to be added after the collection is fully processed.

Elizabeth Main Le Blond

Le Blond Party on Piz Corvatsch July 1889

Piz Palu from Piz Cambrena, September 1889

Le Blond Party March 1890

Disgrazia, March1890

Disgrazia from below Tremoggia Pass, 1889

From Disgrazia, 1890

Elizabeth Le Blond with members of her Bicycle Tour Group, 1896

Boats photographed during 1896 bicycle tour of Switzerland, Italy, France, and Britain

Rest break on 1896 Photographic bicycle tour of Switzerland, Italy, France, and Britain

Toboganning (Photo by Captain Bligh)

Elizabeth Main Le Blond playing Hockey 1890 (Photo by Mr. Cunard)