AFRICAN EXPLORER

The remarkable life of Carl Akeley is written here with much of the fascination, both quiet and urgent, which marked it. When he was young in upper New York State, Carl had a running feud with his father about becoming a farmer. He loved the out-of-doors, but didn't want to plow it up; instead he wanted to study its animals and his eye was so good it could notice the tiniest movements in the woods and ponds around home. On his own he did try stuffing some small animals, at a time when taxidermy was still almost non-existent. Through these efforts came his first big chance- to work with David Bruce and the Rochester Museum. From this beginning Akeley went on to almost fabulous heights of invention and exploration. His feats of preservation, taxidermy and museum displays would alone be enough to fill volumes. Added to them, his war work and the development of the Akeley movie camera for telescopic photography, make him one of the few great men of American natural history.