In September free admission to Chanute’s Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum is generously provided by Larry & Cathy Taylor and Family. Next month’s free admission is offered by Passport Sponsor Commercial Bank. Please thank our wonderful supporters!
Museum visitors during Artist Alley are encouraged to tour our new special exhibit “Martin + Osa Johnson’s North Borneo Expeditions 1920 & 1935.” It highlights the importance of the Johnsons’ pioneering documentary achievements in Borneo.
A century ago Martin and Osa Johnson were on safari in East Africa during their “Four Years in Paradise” expedition, 1924-1927. They sent regular reports back to supporters detailing their daily activities. This included spending long hours sitting in blinds waiting to film animals at waterholes.
One such encounter was recorded by Martin on Sept. 3, 1924: “About three o’clock a couple greater kudu came in sight, but got suspicious and hung around under a tree where I could not photograph for a couple hours, then went away. At five-thirty I was giving up hope when a big mother rhino and her little toto came down one of the many trails and without hesitation she went right to the water. The toto was not over a week old, it was still unsteady on its feet, but was as frisky as a kitten, it ran under its mother’s belly as she drank, it butted into her, it ran in little jerky steps for a few feet and then back again, it tried to drink but every time it got near the water it got frightened and backed off. All the time the mother drank, and not over a hundred feet from me, I know she drank for fifteen minutes without stopping, the toto explorer further and further away, but would get frightened at a leaf or a bird and come running back.
All the time I was grinding out film, I used the two, the four, the six, the twelve and the seventeen inch lenses. I reloaded [film] several times, all the time Osa could hardly contain herself with excitement. She made picture after picture with the Graflex [still camera].
It was getting too dark to make good pictures, but still I ground on, using slow crank. The mother rhino finished drinking and wandered about, snooping under rocks and then about a quarter past six she and the toto returned up the path they had come down.
When it was all over we were the happiest people in Africa for it made a very fine film. The best rhino I have ever made. But we lost a little of our happiness when we found that Osa had not made a single still picture. I had not used the Graflex for several days and in carrying it a screw holding the mirror had worked loose to such an extent that the mirror would not raise, the shutter worked all right and Osa thought she was making pictures, but she did not get a one. She felt pretty blue for a while, but in face of such wonderful movies she soon was as happy as ever.”
The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum and Osa’s Ark Museum Store are open Tuesday through Saturday 10-5. For more information call the museum at 620-431-2730, visit SafariMuseum.com, and follow us on Facebook.
