Carl Rungius - Trip To The United States

Trip To The United States

In 1894, Rungius's Uncle Clemens Fulda invited him to hunt moose in Maine. Shortly after, in 1895, he traveled to Wyoming, which for him was an exotic experience. Open skies, mountain scenes and big game abounded. He made extensive studies of his trophies, and stalked game, which allowed him to gain a better understanding of the animals he painted. His summer in Wyoming persuaded Rugius that the United States would be his new home; “I painted from the collected material and later in the spring of 1896, I went back to Germany...My decision to cut all ties with the Old World and to live in America got good was due in no small part to this first Wyoming trip. For my heart was in the West.”

In 1896, Rungius immigrated to the United States. After hunting and painting trips to New Brunswick in 1900-1909 and to the Yukon in 1904, Rugius’s fascination with the North American moose began. In 1907 Carl Rungius married married his cousin Louise Fulda, who was 11 years his junior, in 1907. Louise was his Uncle Clemen’s daughter and Runguis had grown quite fond of Louise during the time he had spent living at his Uncle’s house in Maine. Louise and Carl knew they could never have children due to the fact that they were cousins, but neither of them seemed to express any regret about this decision.

Rungius found work, as hunters and naturalists commissioned wildlife illustrations for their magazines, books, and campaigns to protect endangered animals. Rungius’s arrival in the United States coincided with the recognition of the plight of the continent’s game animal and bird populations. Several concerned sportsmen had turned their energy to correcting the deteriorating situation, the most noteworthy being Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was a leader in Conservation, fighting to end the waste of natural resources. Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five National Parks, and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act, under which he proclaimed 18 new United States National Monuments. He also established the first 51 Bird Reserves, four Game Preserves, and 150 National Forests, including Shoshone National Forest, the nation's first. Around 1909, Rungius gave up illustrating to pursue a career as a full-time easel painter. His illustrations, however, stayed in circulation long after, playing a large role in spreading information about ethical hunting. In early twentieth-century North America, there were few major zoos and photography was still in its infancy, so illustrations from books and periodicals were the public's main source of information concerning wildlife.