The Theodore Roosevelt Hunting Library consists of 232 books collected by the late president on topics ranging from big-game hunting, to natural history, exploration and sport in general, not only in the Western US, but in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Arctic.

The majority of the books bear Theodore Roosevelt’s engraved armorial bookplate with two rose bushes bearing three rose blossoms on the shield with the motto, “Qui plantavit curabit” (He who plants shall reap), and a helmet with three plumes above the escutcheon. In addition, 37 of the books are inscribed to Roosevelt or his immediate family, most frequently by their authors.

Quite possibly the first book in this special collection was John Dean Caton’s The Antelope and Deer of America (New York, 1877), inscribed to “Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. from his mother,” given as a Christmas gift when he was 19 years old. Two other works which the young Roosevelt acquired about this time are volumes II and III of The American Naturalist (Salem, Mass.,1869-70), the journal published by the Peabody Academy of Science; and Lord Clermont's A Guide to the Quadrupeds and Reptiles of Europe (London, 1859); both are inscribed "Theodore Roosevelt, 1878.”

The oldest book in the Roosevelt library is a copy of Jean de Glamorgan's La Chasse du Loup, printed with royal privilege at Paris by Jacques Du-Puys in 1566. Another important early French edition devoted to hunting is Robert de Salnove's La Venerie Royale (Paris, 1655). Dedicated to Louis XIV, this first edition is considered to be one of the classics in its field, and it established the author's reputation. Textually it relates to the royal chase of the stag, the roebuck, the wolf, and the fox, and the extensive fourth part is devoted to a survey of the French royal forests.

The earliest English book is Edward Topsell’s The Historie of Foure-Footed Beastes (London, 1607); on the title page of the Beastes there is a woodcut of a gorgon rather than the cut of a hyena which is found in some copies. With this book is bound Topsell’s Historie of Serpents (London, 1608).

In Theodore Roosevelt, an Autobiography (New York, 1914), the author wrote the following short description concerning his hunting library:

“Now, I am very proud of my big-game library. I suppose there must be many big-game libraries in Continental Europe, and possibly in England, more extensive than mine, but I have not happened to come across any such library in this country. Some of the originals go back to the sixteenth century, and there are copies of reproductions of the two or three most famous hunting books of the Middle Ages, such as the Duke of York's translation of Gaston Phoebus, and the queer book of the Emperor Maximilian. It is only very occasionally that I meet any one who cares for any of these books.”