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Article ID: CBB001030982

“Gorilla Trails in Paradise”: Carl Akeley, Mary Bradley, and the American Search for the Missing Link (2006)

Jones, Jeannette Eileen (Author)

Journal of American Culture
Volume: 29
Pages: 321--336

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Human evolution National parks and reserves Primatology Museums 20th century, early United States Africa Akeley, Carl Ethan Bradley, Mary Hastings American Museum of Natural History, New York

This article explores how a group of middle-class Americans took up the search for the missing link by conducting a safari in Africa, and how their quest transformed and influenced American ruminations on the ape--human relationship. In this examination, the article discloses the transatlantic connections involving this pursuit of gorillas in the misty mountains of the Belgian Congo, particularly as those international links reflected and reinforced the politics of empire. Specifically, the article recounts and analyzes the Akeley African Expedition to the Belgian Congo conducted in 1921 under the auspices of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to create an unparalleled gorilla diorama (a museum exhibit of stuffed animals posed in a simulated habitat). It tracks how the safari morphed into (1) a mission to rehabilitate the image of the gorilla and (2) a campaign for the preservation of the gorilla. The article places special emphasis on the relationship between the Belgian government and American scientists in creating the world's first gorilla sanctuary. Lastly, Gorilla Trails in Paradise discusses how the images of the gorilla as painted in the travel narratives of naturalist Carl Akeley and writer (and safari participant) Mary Hastings Bradley emerged and indeed became imbedded in cinematic culture.

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