Martin and Osa Johnson
In the first half of the 20th century the couple captured the public's imagination through their films and books of adventure in exotic, faraway lands.
Photographers, explorers, marketers, naturalists and authors, Martin and Osa studied the wildlife and peoples of East and Central Africa, the South Pacific Islands and British North Borneo.
[1] His father worked as a jeweler and would bring home crates labeled with European cities like Paris and Barcelona, inspiring Martin to stowaway on a ship to Europe as a teenager.
[2] On his way back to Kansas, Martin Johnson read of Jack London’s plans to travel the world in a 45-foot boat, the Snark.
Martin and Osa finished their trip in 1920 with visits to British North Borneo (now Sabah) and a sailing expedition up the coast of East Africa.
During the second and longest trip, from 1924 to 1927, the Johnsons spent much of their time in northern Kenya by a lake they dubbed Paradise, at Mount Marsabit.
The movies Martin's Safari (1928), Osa's Four Years in Paradise (1941), and the film Simba: King of the Beasts (1928) were made with footage of these trips.
In 1925, Osa and Martin met the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, while on safari in Kenya.
[10] In January 1937, Martin and Osa began a nationwide lecture and radio tour at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City.
[14] By October 1937, the New York Times was publishing dispatches of Osa's latest trip to Africa, in which she described lifestyles and practices of the Maasai and other tribes.
Episodes introduced by Ivan T. Sanderson were "Armed Menace," "Cameras in the Wilderness," "Herds of Destruction," "Jaws of Death," "Kill to Live," "Man-Eaters of the Masai," "Monkey Safari," "Orang-utan," "Pygmy Hunters," "Return to Adventure," "Terror of the Plains" and "Trek Through the Wild Lands."
[16] Formed in 1961 to preserve the Johnsons' achievements and to encourage further research into their fields of study, the Safari Museum (as it was originally named) has grown and flourished.
The museum started with a core collection of the Johnsons' films, photographs, manuscripts, articles, books, and personal belongings donated by Osa's mother.
In 1998, the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum was named by the History Channel Traveler website as one of the "Top-Ten Historic Sites for Valentine's Day" that "capture romance, American-style."
Honorary trustees include: Jack Badal, Robert Ballard, Kevin Brownlow, M. Miller Davis & Ayden Mayeri, Nancy Durbin, Jack Hanna, Ed Elbert (producer of, among others, The Mighty Quinn), Kelly Enright, Joyce Harrell, Dick Houston (president of Elefence International), Yvonne Houston (Osa's niece), Eleanor & Pascal Imperato, Schuyler Jones, Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker, Lamont Lindstrom, Kenneth Love, Kate & T.J. Miller, Margaret Moore, Kay & George Schaller, Igor Sikorsky, Jr. (son of Igor Sikorsky), Jan & Romi Svatoš, Roy Thomas, Stan Walsh (Travel Adventure Cinema Society), Keith Wauchope (United States Ambassador to Gabon, retired), Holly Wofford (Lake Paradise Entertainment producer) and Ray Woods.
Honorary trustees in memoriam include: Marianna Beach, Vern Carstens (the Johnsons’ pilot), Gary K. Clarke (director emeritus of the Topeka Zoo and president of Cowabunga Safaris), Clive Cussler, Dick Douglas, Clarke Getts (Osa's second husband), Byron Harrell, Belle Leighty (Osa's mother), David Martin, Douglas Oliver, Mike Resnick, C. Jackson Selsor, Kenhelm Stott, Jr. (general curator emeritus of the San Diego Zoo and trustee of the National Underwater and Marine Agency), Lowell Thomas, Joseph Tilton (Johnsons’ cameraman), Mahlon Wallace III and Helen (Joyce) & George Wauchope (Helen was the Johnsons’ secretary who previously worked for Lowell Thomas).
The architects and Disney team developing a new "safari lodge" borrowed Johnson films from the museum in 1997 and 1998 for research and inspiration.
