Martin Elmer Johnson

Martin Elmer Johnson (9 Oct 1884 - 13 Jan 1937) was an American explorer, photographer, and documentary filmmaker. He has photographed thousands of lions in the wilds of Africa, killing only two.

Martin Elmer Johnson was born on 9 Oct 1884 in Rockford, Winnebago County, Illinois, and grew up in Lincoln and Independence towns in Kansas. His father worked as a jeweler in Independence, Kansas. As a jeweler, his father would bring home crates with labels of faraway places including Paris, Geneva, Budapest, and Barcelona. This made young Johnson curious about the places with interesting names, at which point he decided to leave the United States and travel Europe.

Life in Europe was not easy for him. He went hungry in Brussels and in London, he had to sleep in packing boxes. Feeling homesick, in order to get back home in Kansas, he hid himself as a stowaway in the lifeboat of a steamship bound for New York.

On his way back on the boat, he met an engineer who showed him a magazine containing an article by Jack London. London told in this article how he intended to make a trip around the world in a little thirty-foot boat named Snark. After reaching Kansas, Johnson wrote a letter to London, begging to go along on that trip. He told London that he has experience traveling abroad. After two weeks, Johnson received a telegram from London with three words –– "Can you cook?" Johnson replied with three words –– "Just try me." Then, to gain some experience in cooking, he went out and got a job in the kitchen of a restaurant.

Johnson's application was accepted by London. He accompanied London on the Snark and as the chief cook and bottle-washer. It was also his job to buy the provisions for the trip, and he calculated that he took along enough salt and pepper and other spices to last a normal crew something like two hundred years. Johnson sailed the seven seas and roamed all over the world from the coral islands of the South Seas to the jungles of darkest Africa. He photographed pigmies, giants, elephants, giraffes, and made pictures of all the wildlife on the African grassland. One of his closest calls was in the South Sea Islands when he nearly ended up in a kettle of soup. That was when he was getting the first pictures of cannibals ever made.

The trip on the Snark ran from 1907 to 1909. After coming back to the United States, he toured the country displaying photographs and artifacts collected on the voyage. He met his future wife, Osa Leighty, later Osa Helen Johnson, while showing his travelogues at the theatre in Osa's hometown of Chanute, Kansas, where she was singing. The two married in May 1910 in Independence, Kansas, and spent the next seven years touring with Martin's travelogue in the United States and Europe.

In 1913, Johnson published his book "Through the South Seas With Jack London". Over the years, Johnson and his wife published many documentary films including:

• Lost Tribe (1923)
• Simba: The King of the Beasts (1928)
• Across the World with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson (1930)
• Wonders of the Congo (1931)
• Congorilla (1932)
• Wings Over Africa (1934)
• Baboona (1935)
• Borneo (1937)

In January 1937, Johnson and his wife began a nationwide lecture and radio tour at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. On January 12, they boarded a flight bound for Las Vegas and Burbank. The plane crashed in bad weather near the Los Pinetos peak in California. Martin died the following day, on 13 Jan 1937. Osa recovered and gave hundreds of lectures from a wheelchair.

Johnson died on 13 Jan 1937 after a plane crash in Newhall, Los Angeles County, California, the day before.

The Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum which opened in 1961 in Chanute, Kansas houses a collection of about 10,000 Johnson photographs and many of his films.

Martin + Osa

In 2006, American Eagle Outfitters launched a clothing line named "Martin + Osa" in honor of Martin Elmer Johnson and Osa Helen Johnson. 28 nationwide Martin + Osa stores were launched, targeting 25 to 40-year-old customers and offering classic and contemporary clothing, with an emphasis on denim. The label used references to the Johnsons on their clothing and accessories –– "1910" referred to the year Martin and Osa married; "S-38" referred to the Sikorsky S-38 amphibian airplane flown by the Johnsons; and "NC-52V" was the aircraft registration number of their Sikorsky S-39. In 2016 the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum acquired the Martin + Osa trademarks.