1900
When this photograph was taken, Theodore Roosevelt’s family was preparing to vacate the White House, and his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, was on his way to becoming president. Immediately after leaving office, Roosevelt would travel to British East Africa (present-day Kenya), in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, to collect specimens for the national museum. Roosevelt was just fifty when he left office, young for an ex-president but not for the formidable risks of hunting big game. He brought his nineteen-year-old son, Kermit (second from left), along on the safari. Edith Roosevelt reconciled herself to her husband’s craving for risk and adventure, trusting that his seeming invincibility would protect her son.