B&C Member Spotlight

Boone and Crockett Club members have come from a cross-section of famous accomplished people whose lives and careers have written and recorded the history of this country since the late 19th Century. They have been naturalists, scientists, explorers and sportsmen, writers and academicians, artists, statesmen and politicians, generals, bankers, financiers, philanthropists, and industrialists. Their diversity of ideas and activities during their careers have made the Boone and Crockett Club rich in its fellowship and achievements. Below you'll find spotlights of early B&C members. This is a work in progress and additional spotlights will continue to be featured.

B&C Member Spotlight - Jay N. "Ding" Darling

A Voice and an Artist for Conservation — In the early 1930s, the Bureau of Biological Survey was so poorly reputed that there were calls for its dissolution. One man saved it, a man who was a most unlikely candidate. He had no prior administrative experience, had never worked in a bureaucracy, had never run for public office, and was not even a biologist. He was, amazingly, a political cartoonist.

B&C Member Spotlight - John F. Lacey

Conservation’s Most Unsung HeroBy PJ DelHomme No lawmaker to walk the halls of Congress has done more for wildlife than John F. Lacey, a member of the Boone and Crockett Club from 1898 until his death...

B&C Member Spotlight - Gifford Pinchot

As Euro-Americans spread across our continent, they cleared land for agriculture and consumed raw materials for industry. The “public domain,” land that belonged to the federal estate, was essentially without protection. By the 1880s, this misuse was no longer tolerable, and efforts began to maintain, protect, and manage these lands for the public welfare. One great American—Gifford Pinchot—came to be credited in American history as the early champion of “conservation.” This is his story.

B&C Member Spotlight - Theodore Roosevelt

In 1887, Theodore Roosevelt returned from his Elkhorn Ranch in the Dakota Territory with an idea. He would assemble a group of like-minded, influential men to turn the tide in favor of conserving our ...

B&C Member Spotlight - Henry Fairfield Osborn

Henry Fairfield Osborn was admitted in 1899 as an Associate Member (now called Professional Member) and by 1913 had been elected as an Honorary Life Member. As of 2021, only 42 Members have been so ho...

B&C Member Spotlight - Frederick Courteney Selous

The Boone and Crockett Club's dedication to the conservation of North American wildlife spans 117 years. Yet not all members have been North Americans or involved with conservation on that continent. ...

B&C Member Spotlight - William T. Hornaday

The Great American ZoologistBy Theodore J. Holsten, B&C Emeritus Member, excerpt from Fair Chase MagazineA close associate of many early Boone and Crockett members, William T. Hornaday was a pione...

B&C Member Spotlight - John B. Burnham

One of the few books ever issued "With the Approval of the Boone and Crockett Club" is "The Rim of Mystery: A Hunter's Wanderings in Unknown Siberian Asia", by John Bird Burnham. Burnham, a Boone and Crockett Club member, along with a companion, Andrew M. Taylor, embarked on a five-month expedition to the remote Chukotsk Peninsula of Northeastern Siberia to determine whether wild sheep existed there and to what species they belonged.

B&C Member Spotlight - Belmore Browne

Artist, Explorer, Hunter, Writer, Mountaineer – “The game’s up: we’ve got to get down.” With these words to his two companions, Belmore Browne conceded defeat only 125 feet from the summit of Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak at 20,335 feet. A fierce gale, 55 miles per hour, along with blinding visibility and the temperature at –15° made it impossible to continue. They came so close to the summit while setting an altitude record for climbs in North America. A short time later, as they retreated, a major earthquake rattled the mountain.

B&C Member Spotlight - Madison Grant

Six years after George Bird Grinnell and Theodore Roosevelt founded the Boone and Crockett Club, Grinnell sponsored for membership a young, assertive New Yorker named Madison Grant. The year was 1893....