Who Invented the Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus)? On the Authorship of the Fraudulent 1812 Journal of Charles Le Raye (2015)
The captivity journal of Charles Le Raye was first published in 1812 as a chapter in A topographical description of the state of Ohio, Indiana Territory, and Louisiana, a volume authored anonymously by “a late officer in the U. S. Army”. Le Raye was purported to be a French Canadian fur trader who, as a captive of the Sioux, had travelled across broad portions of the Missouri and Yellowstone river drainages a few years before the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804--1806), and his account of the land, its people, and its natural resources was relied upon as a primary source by generations of natural historians, geographers, and ethnographers. Based directly on descriptions of animals in the published journal, the naturalist Constantine S. Rafinesque named seven new species of North American mammals, including what are currently recognized as the mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) and a Great Plains subspecies of white-tailed deer (O. virginianus macrourus). Unfortunately, Le Raye never existed, and historical, geographical, and ethnographical evidence indicates that the journal is fraudulent. Determining the author of this work is relevant to identifying the sources used to construct it, which may help us to understand the real animals upon which Rafinesque's species are based. Traditionally, authorship of the volume was attributed to Jervis Cutler, but his role in composing the fraudulent Le Raye journal has been called into question. In this paper, I present additional evidence supporting the hypothesis that Jervis Cutler bears primary responsibility for the Le Raye journal and that he had the background, opportunity, and potential motive to author it.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Woodman, Neal;
(2015)
Who Invented the Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus)? on the Authorship of the Fraudulent 1812 Journal of Charles Le Raye
(/isis/citation/CBB001500436/)
Book
Boewe, Charles E.;
(2011)
The Life of C. S. Rafinesque, a Man of Uncommon Zeal
(/isis/citation/CBB001450963/)
Book
Vallance, T. G.;
Moore, D. T.;
Groves, E. W.;
(2002)
Nature's Investigator: The Diary of Robert Brown in Australia, 1801--1805
(/isis/citation/CBB000358383/)
Article
Gill, B. J.;
(2014)
Charles Francis Adams: Diary of a Young American Taxidermist Visiting New Zealand, 1884--1887
(/isis/citation/CBB001321118/)
Chapter
Boewe, Charles;
(2003)
The Historical Background and Literary Sources of Rafinesque's Mammalian Taxonomy
(/isis/citation/CBB000551277/)
Chapter
Jablonski Walker, Suzanne;
(2007)
Making and Breaking the Stag: The Construction of the Animal in the Early Modern Hunting Treatise
(/isis/citation/CBB000773421/)
Book
Rafinesque, C. S.;
Boewe, Charles;
(2005)
A C. S. Rafinesque Anthology
(/isis/citation/CBB000671260/)
Article
Endersby, Jim;
(2009)
“The Vagaries of a Rafinesque”: Imagining and Classifying American Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB000954221/)
Book
Ben Forkner;
(2018)
Audubon on Louisiana: Selected Writings of John James Audubon
(/isis/citation/CBB585001501/)
Article
Faak, Margot;
(2000)
Los diarios americanos de Alejandro de Humboldt
(/isis/citation/CBB000102460/)
Book
John Maley;
F. Andrew Dowdy;
(2018)
Wanderer on the American Frontier: The Travels of John Maley, 1808–1813
(/isis/citation/CBB240189967/)
Book
Reynolds, William;
Philbrick, Nathaniel;
Philbrick, Thomas;
(2004)
Private Journal of William Reynolds: United States Exploring Expedition, 1838--1842
(/isis/citation/CBB000650388/)
Book
Sinclair, David;
(2005)
The Land That Never Was: Sir Gregor MacGregor and the Most Audacious Fraud in History
(/isis/citation/CBB000520061/)
Book
Buchanan, David;
Grogans, Robert;
(2012)
To Auckland by the Ganges: The Journal of a Sea Voyage to New Zealand in 1863
(/isis/citation/CBB001422455/)
Book
Burroughs, John;
Walker, Charlotte Zoë;
(2001)
The Art of Seeing Things: Essays
(/isis/citation/CBB000101917/)
Article
Waring, Sophie;
(2015)
Margaret Fountaine: A Lepidopterist Remembered
(/isis/citation/CBB001422107/)
Book
Bellanca, Mary Ellen;
(2007)
Daybooks of Discovery: Nature Diaries in Britain, 1770--1870
(/isis/citation/CBB001030155/)
Article
Masseti, Marco;
Van Der Mije, Steven;
(2014)
Squirrels from the Mariana Islands (south-western Pacific) in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, with Notes on the Mammalian Fauna of this Micronesian Archipelago
(/isis/citation/CBB001202220/)
Article
Vienne, Florence;
(2015)
Seeking the Constant in What Is Transient: Karl Ernst von Baer's Vision of Organic Formation
(/isis/citation/CBB001510244/)
Article
Delany, M. J.;
(2012)
Mammal Studies in Uganda 1878--1980
(/isis/citation/CBB001220854/)
Be the first to comment!