:For other persons named Joseph Thompson, see Joseph Thompson
Joseph Stalin | Joseph Conrad | Saint Joseph | Joseph Haydn | Joseph Beuys | Joseph | Hunter S. Thompson | Joseph Goebbels | Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor | Joseph Barbera | Joseph Chamberlain | Joseph Brodsky | Franz Joseph I of Austria | Joseph Henry Blackburne | Joseph Banks | Joseph McCarthy | Richard Thompson | Richard Thompson (musician) | Joseph II | Joseph Campbell | Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat | Joseph Priestley | Fred Thompson | Joseph Bonaparte | Joseph Pulitzer | Tommy Thompson | Danny Thompson | Thompson | Joseph Stiglitz | Joseph Paxton |
In 1883, Joseph Thompson was the first European to penetrate the feared Maasai region known as Empusel (meaning 'salty, dusty place' in Maa).
He gathered several like-minded men: his brother Paul Wegeforth, several other physicians including local physician Fred Baker and Navy surgeon Joseph Thompson, and naturalist Frank Stephens, who was associated with the San Diego Society of Natural History (later the San Diego Natural History Museum).