Dr. Edmund Heller was a taxidermist for the Smithsonian Institution who was a member of Theodore Roosevelt's safari in 1909. It was his job to prepare the animal specimens, especially the large mammals, that had been shot by the hunters for transport back to America where they could be mounted and displayed in natural history museums. In September, Heller was working on a lioness when Richard Medlicot introduced him to a young Indiana Jones, who was visiting the Kirinyaga safari camp in British East Africa with his family.