Informed by the growing literature on narrative and embodied approaches to the study of leadership, this article explores Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation leadership as mediated by photographs, cartoon images, and his own writings and speeches. It argues that Roosevelt embodied his story about the natural world and the place of “man” in it through five different but related roles or personas: as proponent of “the strenuous life,” as cowboy, as Rough Rider, as hunter, and naturalist. It presents a critical analysis of Roosevelt’s conservation leadership that draws upon historical research, feminist and eco-feminist critique, and concepts from the field of organizational leadership including the “Virtual Leader Construct.” As such, the article makes a contribution to our historical understanding of Roosevelt, contemporary theorizing about leadership as a narrated and embodied practice, visual and esthetic approaches to the study of leadership, and to the emerging field of environmental leadership.
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