Rounsevelle Wildman

Rounsevelle Wildman (March 19, 1864, in Batavia, New York – February 22, 1901) was an American journalist, a member of the United States Foreign Service, and the owner and editor-in-chief of the literary magazine Overland Monthly from 1894 to 1897.

Biography

His maternal grandfather, Colonel J. P. Rounsevelle, was a leading politician and financier in the state of New York. After education in Lima, New York at Genessee Wesleyan Seminary (of which his father was the president), Rounsevelle Wildman graduated from Syracuse University, where he studied journalism. After experience on newspapers in New York City, Chicago, and Kansas City, he became in 1885 a reporter for the Idaho Statesman in Boise. In Boise, he was an advocate for the Republican Party and gained a literary reputation for his contributions published by magazines in the eastern United States. In June 1890, President Benjamin Harrison, a Republican, appointed him the U.S. Consul in Singapore at the Straits Settlements. During his years in Singapore and its environs, he continued his literary work and was made Special Commissioner for the Smithsonian Institution of the Straits Settlements and Siam. He gathered large collection of valuable anthropological artifacts and sent them to various educational institutions. In recognition of his work, he was elected in 1891 a Member of the Royal Asiatic Society. In January 1893 Harrison appointed him the U.S. Consul at Barmen, Germany. However, in early 1894 the newly elected President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, appointed one of his own supporters to replace Wildman, who left the U.S. consular service. In Singapore, Wildman befriended Sultan Abu Bakar of Johor, who asked him to go to Chicago in 1893 and take charge of the Johor exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition. Wildman was also the exposition's Commissioner for the Straits Settlements.