Martin & Osa Johnson Safari Museum

Location:  111 N. Lincoln Ave, Downtown Chanute

Contact:  620.431.2730     or visit their website at:   www.safarimuseum.com

Photos Copyright Harland J. Schuster.  Please do not use without permission.

Perhaps the last thing you'd expect to find in Kansas is a museum about Africa and the South Pacific, but, in fact, there is just such a museum in the restored Santa Fe depot in Chanute. 

The story of the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari museum starts in 1917. As a young man from southeast Kansas thirsting for adventure, Martin Johnson signed on as cook for author Jack London's around-the-world voyage.  Never mind that Martin couldn't cook, he'd learn how in order to take part in the adventure of a lifetime.  Martin did know photography, however, and this was his true calling.   Though the voyage was unexpectedly cut short after reaching the South Pacific, Martin Johnson's thirst for exploring exotic places had only been whetted.

Martin Johnson started a traveling road show--these were popular entertainment in those days--featuring his photos, a few artifacts, and his stories of adventure from the aborted adventure to exotic lands with Jack London.  It was during a swing through Chanute that Martin met Osa, and the two soon married.   From then until Martin Johnson's death in the late 1930's, the Johnson's would travel, photograph and write about their adventures in Africa and the South Pacific.   The photographic work was done with what would be today considered very primitive equipment.  Much of what the Johnson's saw and documented had literally never been viewed by Westerners, and the films were a huge success.  In addition to creating feature films of their adventures to far off lands, much of the Johnson footage was used in feature Hollywood films such as Tarzan.  Even today Martin's work is still in demand, and if you see vintage black and white footage of wildlife in Africa, the chances are pretty good it's Martin Johnson's work.  Most of what the Johnson's saw no longer exists.  Long gone are the huge herds of African animals and the primitive cultures of Africa and the South Pacific.  World War II swept away much of the mystic of exotic lands, with young Americans fighting and dying in the jungles of many of the same South Pacific islands that the Johnson's had been some of the first Westerners to visit just a few years before.  European colonialism in Africa was in the process of changing that continent even while the Johnson's were exploring there.  In fact, Martin Johnson predicted that by the year 2000, the last of the wild African elephants would be gone.  His prediction came close to coming true.

The Martins would always return home from their adventures nearly broke.  They would spend most of their time back home giving lectures and promoting their films to raise money for their next adventure.  It was during one of these promotional tours that the commercial aircraft that the Johnson's were on crashed and Martin was killed.  Osa was also severely injured, but eventually recovered.  Osa vowed she would never go on another safari without Martin, and she never did.  She spent the rest of her life, until she died of a heart attack in the 1950's, writing and providing technical assistance for Hollywood movies.  Her most famous writing effort, "I married Adventure" is still in print and was made into a motion picture as well.

Surprisingly, the Johnson's brought very few artifacts back with them from their adventures.  Nearly everything except for the exposed film and a few personal articles were either given or thrown away before the return voyage to the States.

In 1961, a few years after Osa's death, her mother started a small museum located in a little store front in downtown Chanute.  It was formed around a core collection of films, manuscripts, photographs, articles, books and personal articles belonging to the famous explorers.  Most of the African articles on display have been donated by others, most notably Dr Pascal Imperato, but there have been many other significant donors as well.  By 1993, the museum collection had outgrown the small store front location, and it was relocated to the restored depot where it is resides today.

In addition to the other African articles on display, the museum has an impressive number of ceremonial masks from Africa.   Many of these are quite elaborate and ornate.  Among the more interesting of these are two masks (not pictured--hey, what can I say, I'm not the best photographer in the country) which are about 12 feet tall and are on display in the museum's stairway.   The mask in the photo, right, has a small pan for holding live coals.  At the appropriate time in the ceremony, the dancer would blow across pan causing the mask to shoot fire from its mouth.  A sort of stone age special effect.

The African cultures which produced the masks and other articles here are rapidly vanishing.  They are inevitably being replaced with the Pepsi/Coke/McDonalds culture common to the rest of the world.  It is possible that one day soon, the only way to see a glimpse of the Wild Africa that once was will be in a few museums, with one of them being located in southeast Kansas.

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