Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum

Martin Johnson grew up in Kansas with a restless hunger for adventure, and as a young man he sailed with the writer Jack London on a South Seas voyage that set the course of his life. Back home he met Osa, a young Kansas woman who became his wife and equal partner, and together they set out to see and record the far corners of the world, an extraordinary ambition for a couple from the plains.

Over the following decades the Johnsons mounted expedition after expedition to Africa, to Borneo, and to the islands of the South Pacific, traveling into places few Westerners had reached. Osa proved as intrepid as Martin, and their partnership, both in marriage and in filmmaking, became the heart of their fame. That two people from small-town Kansas accomplished all this is a large part of what makes their story so compelling.

The Johnsons were pioneers of expedition filmmaking and photography in an age before television, when few people had ever seen moving images of distant lands and wildlife. They hauled heavy cameras into the field and captured footage of elephants, lions, and other animals, and of the peoples they met, then brought it back to enthrall audiences in theaters and lecture halls across America.

Their films and books made them celebrities and shaped how a generation of Americans imagined Africa and the South Pacific. Seen today, the work reflects the attitudes and framing of its era, the perspective of 1920s and 1930s Western explorers looking outward, and the museum presents it as both a landmark of early documentary and a document of its time.

The museum grew up in Chanute because of Osa's ties to the region, and it has become the home of a rich archive of the Johnsons' work, films, photographs, cameras, and artifacts gathered on their travels. For anyone interested in the history of exploration, documentary film, or early photography, it is a remarkable resource, far deeper than a small-town museum might suggest.

Beyond the Johnsons' own story, the museum has broadened over the years to explore the cultures and wildlife of the lands they visited, and to preserve related art and artifacts. It stands as a lasting tribute to two adventurers whose curiosity carried them from a Kansas town to the ends of the earth and back.

Chanute is a southeast-Kansas railroad town, named for a pioneering engineer, set in the greener, more wooded part of the state where prairie gives way to oak groves and creek bottoms. This was long the country of the Osage people, who lived across southeast Kansas, and whose nation continues today, now centered in Oklahoma.

The surrounding region mixes farmland, old oil-and-gas country, and rolling woodland, and Chanute makes a natural stop on a route through southeast Kansas. Spring and fall bring the most pleasant weather for exploring the town and the wider country, while summers run warm and humid and winters are generally mild for the plains.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is a place we chose through independent editorial review, never a paid placement.

The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum, in Chanute in southeastern Kansas, celebrates the remarkable lives of Martin and Osa Johnson, a Kansas couple who became famous explorers, photographers, and filmmakers of the early twentieth century. The Johnsons traveled to Africa, the South Pacific, and Borneo, capturing pioneering films and photographs of wildlife and peoples that thrilled audiences and introduced many to distant lands. The museum houses their photographs, films, artifacts, and collections from their expeditions, along with African art and natural history, telling the story of these adventurous Kansans. A fascinating window into a golden age of exploration, it engages visitors. With its explorers' collections, the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum offers a fascinating destination in Kansas.

Martin and Osa Johnson were a Kansas couple who became celebrated explorers, photographers, and filmmakers in the early twentieth century, famous for their pioneering expeditions to Africa, the South Pacific, and Borneo. Traveling to remote places, they filmed and photographed wildlife and peoples rarely seen by Western audiences, producing popular films and books that made them famous and helped shape how people understood distant lands. Their adventurous lives, rooted in small-town Kansas, are the story the museum preserves. Learning about the Johnsons enriches a visit to the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Kansas.

You can see the Johnsons' pioneering photographs and films, artifacts and collections from their expeditions to Africa and the South Pacific, African art, and natural history exhibits, all telling the story of their remarkable lives and adventures. The historic photographs and films, the expedition artifacts, and the African art and cultural collections are the draws, offering a fascinating look at a golden age of exploration and at two adventurous Kansans who saw the world. Its collections are rich and evocative. With its explorers' collections, the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum offers an engaging visit in Chanute, Kansas.

As an indoor museum, the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum is enjoyable year-round in any weather, making it a great stop in any season while exploring southeastern Kansas. It can be busier around special events or exhibitions. Because hours can vary, checking the current schedule before you go is wise. Because it is indoors, the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum makes a rewarding stop any time of year in Chanute, Kansas.

The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum is in Chanute in southeastern Kansas, within reach of the southeastern Kansas countryside, Big Brutus near West Mineral, the Fort Scott National Historic Site, and the region's attractions. That makes the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum a fascinating stop to combine with Big Brutus and the other attractions of southeastern Kansas on a visit to the state.