[Nhcoll-l] Is this a grey Black Bear at Teddy Roosevelt's house?

[Ritchie, Fran E]

Hi List,

The curator at Theodore Roosevelt's historic home Sagamore Hill has been researching a grey bear pelt they have on display in one of the rooms (Ted Jr's, to be exact).

See the attached PDF for images. For the mammalogists out there, could this be a grey Black Bear, perhaps from Mississippi in the early 1900s?

The longer context, if you're interested, as told to me by the curator:

"In going down a rabbit hole related to the story of the bear that TR refused to shoot because it was tied up on his hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902, there is an account from the guide who tied up the bear (the account is from 1932, so I'm taking it with a grain of salt), where he describes the bear as 600lbs and grey.  The details of the incident are muddy and a little different depending on what article you read, but those two details remain the same, as well as the fact that the bear was killed (just not shot by TR).  The guide also stated that the bear was killed with a knife to the throat and that TR took the pelt home with him.



So, the next question is, what happened to the pelt?  I am looking at the mystery pelt in Ted Jr.'s Room. I looked up a Louisiana Black Bear, which is reported in several of the stories as the type of bear the group was hunting in 1902, and according to Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, they can be a variety of colors, including blonde or cinnamon (Louisiana Black Bear Management Plan<https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/assets/Resources/Publications/Black_Bear/Louisiana_Black_Bear_Management_Plan_January_2015.pdf>).  The North American Bear Center (Black Bear Color Phases - North American Bear Center<https://bear.org/bear-facts/black-bear-color-phases/>) also states that black bears can go through color phases, including some that look similar to the skin in Ted Jr.'s Room.  I also found some images of mounted cinnamon-colored bears: https://images.app.goo.gl/zXMZSaEhsRWmxzUD9, that look a little similar, accounting for fading.  I also looked up the estimated measurements for the skin of a 600lb black bear, and it seems that 6 feet is the average height from nose to tail - which is the length of our pelt.



I looked at all the documentation we have for this skin, and it is pretty minimal.  In the folder, someone had included a letter written by TR, thanking a friend for a gift of a "skin fragment" from a mylodon.  I'm not sure why this letter was included in this catalog folder, because the description is: "The fragment of skin...with its long coarse hair and the small inset bone shields..." and that it came from Argentina.  To me, this description accurately describes a giant ground sloth (even though they are believed to have gone extinct in North America several thousand years ago, there were some recordings in the 18th century of people finding small fragments of skin with the bone shields and some hairs found in Central and South America), but it does not seem to describe SAHI 6194.



The reason I'm reaching out - do you think it's possible that the pelt could be a grey Black Bear from Mississippi in 1902, and, if you don't feel you can make that assessment with this limited info, do you have any contacts for who I could reach out to or an idea on how we might be able to confirm the type of animal?"




Fran Ritchie, Conservator (Objects)
she/her
Harpers Ferry Center
Fran_Ritchie at nps.gov<mailto:Fran_Ritchie at nps.gov>

American Institute for Conservation Professional Associate (peer-reviewed)

NPS Conserve O Grams - Museums & Collections (U.S. National Park Service)<https://www.nps.gov/subjects/museums/conserve-o-grams.htm>

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