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Name: SMITH, Arthur Donaldson (Dr.)

image of individualimage of individual

Birth Date: 27 Apr 1866 Philadelphia

Death Date: 19 Feb 1939 Philadelphia

Nationality: American

First Date: 1894

Profession: Soldier, physician, hunter. Travelled down to Marsabit from Berbera in 1896, a year before Delamere. The first white man to see Marsabit and enter British Territory from the north

Married: Lucey b. 1857 Erie, Pennsylvania

Author: 'Through Unknown African Countries' 1896

Book Reference: Permanent Way, White Man, North, Chandler

General Information:

Chandler - lengthy entry
Findagrave: Soldier. Physician. Hunter. Explorer. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1889. A captain in the US Army, he was the first white man to visit Kenya's Mount Marsibit He was also the first white man to discover Lake Turkana (formerly called Lake Rudolf) which is located at the juncture of Kenya, Ethiopia, and East Africa. The journey was particularly dangerous through this unexplored area of Ethiopia because of the Galla, or Oroma, the largest community in Ethiopia. This Moslem group was highly suspicious of Europeans. After being given permission to cross Galla country, Prince Rispoli and Captain Bottego entered the land and continually attacked the Galla. Donaldson was accompanied by rifled mercenaries, two taxidermists and a friend, Fred Gillett, who was on a hunting expedition. He wrote a book called Through Unknown African Countries, and had a reputation as a hunter. 
During World War I he was a Captain and Physician in the United States Army and served at General Hospital #14 at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.

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