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Creator (Definite): Nigel RothfelsDate: 2013
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Full title: Rothfels, N. 'Preserving History: Collecting and Displaying in Carl Akeley's In Brightest Africa', in Thorsen, L.E., Rader, K.A. and Dodd, A. (eds.), Animals on Display: the Creaturely in Museums, Zoos, and Natural History (Pennsylvania University Press, 2013), pp. 58-73.
Description:
Rothfels compares Akeley's text with similar 'hunting' memoirs from the period to argue that in fact, Akeley's work confounds our expectations of the genre. Whereas Texts such as Samuel White Baker's The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon (1854) or Theodore Roosevelt's African Game Trails (1910) glorify the hunt, Akeley's text, Rothfels argues, is concerned with preserving life rather than attaining mastery over it:
'In the end, what distinguishes Akeley's work... was his awareness of the possibility of tragedy and injustice in the death of an animal and his effort to preserve life and not simply celebrate the moment of death. However much, then, his memoir echoes themes in the writings of Baker, Roosevelt, and others, the account remains fundamentally different.' (68)
This interest in preservation, Rothfels suggests, fed into Akeley's taxidermy work:
'Akeley appears to have been convinced that the days of the large game animals of the world were numbered, just as he was convinced that he had the ability to preserve them for the future in his artistic taxidermy... Working almost entirely with just the surface of the animal, and placing that over a frame and a form that would somehow bring that surface back to life, Akeley sought to freeze a moment of an animal's life, to save that animal and even the species from their apparently inevitable absolute detruction.' (68-69)
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Cites
Carl Akeley with a leopard, August 1896.
Description:'the trophy shot, such as the famous photograph of Akeley with the leopard he killed with his bare hands... attempts to tell the heroic story of a hunt - and that it was pursued according to the rules of the game - by carefully positioning the hunter, the animal, and often the weapons against a significant setting' (66)
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CitesCollecting Somali wild asses, May 1896
Description:Rothfels notes that during a hunting trip for the animals, 'Akeley took a photograph of one of the dead asses being carried by a camel. The photograph is not reproduced in his memoir but is part of the lantern slide collection of the Field Museum in Chicago... The photograph of the ass on the camel, a black-and-white image that was later coloured by hand, is clearly not about documenting a dead body or a scene. Possibly used in his lectures, it is a highly composed image that resonates with the regrets Akeley describes in his text.
The image is arrnged as a triangularly shaped tryptych presented against a backdrop of mountains rising on each side and framing the central drama. On the left are two men, heads bowed before the dead ass. On the right are two other men looking directly at the dead animal. The body positions of both pairs echo each other. On the left, the men's legs are together, their bodies are turned slightly away from the camera, and their left arms are bent at the elbow. One of the men on the left holds a pair of binoculars, the other carries a case likely designed for a camera - the camera, of course, which is being used for the photograph. On the right, both figures attend to the camel - one holds the animals head, the other rests his hand on the camel's withers. The focus of the image is the dead ass strapped to the back of the camel, covered with blankets and grasses to help protect its skin from the taut ropes. This is not a simple snapshot, but an image composed to tell a story about the death of the ass in a desert setting. If Akeley simply wanted to take a picture of the the dead ass on the camel, he would not have positioned the bodies so carefully, he would not have the men carrying the guns, he would not have the optical equipment so prominently in shot, he would not have paid such close attention to the overall structure of the image.
In a sense, the image is the opposite of the classic trophy shot... here the hunter is absent and the guns and setting tell a simpl[e] and tragically banal story of death. Whereas gun bearers and trackers typically stand outside of the frame of the trophy shot... here the hunter is absent and the gun bearers and trackers stand solemnly next to the dead animal, appearing both to mourn and care for the creature.' (66)
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Cited byA. Dodd et. al., 'Introduction', in L.E. Thorsen, et. al. (eds), Animals on Display: the Creaturely in Museums, Zoos, and Natural History. 2013. pp. 1-11.
Description:'Nigel Rothfels takes up the various material and interpretive problems inherent in preserving animals through an exploration of the work of Carl Akeley. Akeley - widely regarded as one of the most accomplished taxidermists of all time, with numerous works housed and displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago and the American Museum of Natural History in New York - was working at the turn of the nineteenth century, a time when the human impact on the prosperity and indeed survival of many nonhuman animals was beginning to become apparent. Rothfels engages directly with the central paradox of Akeley: motivated by the desire to prevent many of the most majestic species of mammals from going extinct, Akeley undertook to hunt, kill, and stuff them for the benefit of science and the general information of the public. Unlike numerous contemporary hunters, for whom displays of bravado, conquest, and the thrill of the chase were almost all consuming, Akeley was mournful of the steady disappearance of animals, suggesting a particular context for his taxidermy. Akeley's stuffed animals are not so much evidence of domination and defeat (i.e. trophies), but rather can be read as poignant signs of the fragility of the species embodied by the particular specimens displayed. Rothfels shows how, in particular, an informed reading of Akeley's memoir can shed further light on his taxidermy - reminding us that the "meaning" of the animal (or its effigy) is always shaped by a diversity of contingent factors, and that in some cases, relationships that form between humans and animals may constitute legitimate paradoxes that cannor be easily or perhaps ever) resolved. (6-7)
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QuotesCarl Akeley, In Brightest Africa (New York, 1923).
Description:Rothfels describes the book as follows: 'In his 1923 memoir, In Brightest Africa, Carl Akeley describes his collecting adventures in Africa working for the Fiels Museum in Chicago an dthe American Museum of Natural History in New York in the 1890s and first decades of the twentieth century. At first glance, the book seems to sit easily beside other hunting memoirs of the period, as Akeley relates his experiences shooting elephants, lions, antelopes, gorillas, and othe animals in the "Dark Continent." Akeley did not consider himself a hunter, however, but a scientific collector, taxidermist, and artist. And, indeed, even though such figures as Theodore Roosevet, Carl Georg Schillings, and many other big game hunters also characterized their hunting activities as quests to collect for natural historical museums, Akeley's memoir remains importantly different from their classic sport-hunting works. Despite its hunting focus, Akeley's account is clearly structured around the paradoxical theme of preserving animals at a time when their possible extinction seemed imminent.' (58)
'... it is useful to see just how much his writing about hunting parallels the writings of the great hunters of the period... In what one might expect to be a particularly important story for his memoir, for example, Akeley relates the killing of the "old bull" at the center of the large elephant group in the American Museum in New York City. According to Akeley, he was hunting elephants one day in a forest that was high, thick, and dark, and realized that he was in an area where signs of elephants were everywhere. Looking up at the trail, he thought he saw a group fo the animals, but the shapes turned out to be just boulders. Moments later, though, he writes, "I saw across the gully another similar group of boulders, but as I peered at them I saw through a little opening in the leaves, plain and unmistakable, an elephants tusk. I watched it carefully. It moved a little, and behind it I caught a glimpse of the other tusk. They were big and I decided that he would do for my group." Not able to see the animal's eye, Akeley calculated the point for a "brain shot" based on the location of the base of the tusk and fired. Akeley writes, "There was teh riot of an elephant herd suddenly starting. A few seconds later there was a crash. 'He's down,' I thought." When Akeley reached the site with his gun bearer, though, the animal was gone, and they began to follow its trail, which "went straight ahead without deviation as if it had been laid by a compass." Hours passed as the hunters followed the animal and Akeley notes that "the forest was so thick... we could not see in any direction." All of a sudden, Akeley writes, there was "a crash and a squeal," and the "elephant burst across our path within fifteen feet of us. It was absolutely without warning, andhad the charge been straight on us we could hardly ahve escaped." As the animal quickly disappeared back into the forest, Akeley "fired two hurried shots." Realizing that the elephant had begun to stalk him and that he had just narrowly escaped from the wounded animal, Akeley "found a place a little more open than the rest" and decided to wait the animal out. He ate his lunch and had taken a couple of puffs on his pipe when the elephant "let out another squeal and charged." Akeley writes that he "didn't see him but [he] heard him, and grabbing the gun [he] stood ready." The elephant didn't come, though. Akeley concludes the story, writing, "Instead I heard the breaking of the bushed as he collapsed. His last effort had been too much for him." (59-60)
Rothfels notes that Akeley was insistent that his activities were collecting- rather than hunting-oriented:
'Arguing that when it came to certain kinds of shooting he often felt "a great deal like a murderer," Akeley describes his attempts to collect the North African wild asses as "one of the worst" hunts of his first trip to Africa. According to his memoir, Akeley's party left camp at three o'clock in the morning, along with some camels to bring the collected specimens back. Finally, at about eight in the morning, they spotted a lone ass. He writes, "We advanced slowly. As there was no cover, there was no possibility of a stalk, and the chance of a shot at reasonable range seemed remote, for we had found in our previous experience that the wild ass is extremely shy and when once alarmed travels rapidly and for long distances." At two hundred yards, the animal spooked, but then it came back, apparently curious. Akeley and his companion fired. He writes that the animal was "hard hit... but recovered and stood facing us." Approaching closer and worried about losing the animal, the pair fired again. According to Akeley, the animal "merely walked about a little, making no apparent effort to go away. We approached carefully. He showed no signs of fear, and although 'hard hit' stood stolidly until at last I put one hand on his withers and, tripping him, pushed him over.
After a harrowing day during which he and his companions almost dies for lack of water and eventually robbed a caravan of milk at gunpoint, Akeley describes shooting a second ass before nightfall. He writes, "Just at dusk the shadowy forms of five asses dashed across our path fifty yards away and we heard a bullet strike as we took a snap at them. One began to lag behind as the others ran wildly away. The one soon stopped and we approached, keeping him covered in case he attempted to bolt. As we got near he turned and faced us with great, gentle eyes. Without the least sign of fear or anger he seemed to wonder why we had harmed him." Apparently, the animal had only suffered a small wound high on its neck and Akeley felt it should have been able to run away. He concludes: "We walked around him within six feet and I almost believe we could have put a halter on him." Without describing how he killed the ass, Akeley writes simply, "We reached camp about midnight and I announced that if any more wild asses were wanted, someone else would have to shoot them.' (64-65)
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QuotesSamuel White Baker, The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon (London, 1854).
Description:Rothfels notes that 'There are many tales of hunting elephants in the book... intended to convey the excitement of hunting in the jungle for those who had never been there and to awaken thoughts and memories of similar great adventures for those who had. If they seem strikingly bloody and brutal today, the stories cloearly shone with a very different luster for Baker and his avid readers. As he put it, for his own part, "These days will always be looked back to... with greatest pleasure; the moments of sport lose none of their brightness by age, and when the limbs become enfeebled by time, the mind can still cling to scenes long past with the pleasure of youth."
A typical account in the book focuses on the hunt of a "cunning family" of three elephants, which had become targets for Baker because they were raiding crops. According to Baker, the elephants quickly scented the hunters and fled "down wind" through such a thick jungle that he was "very doubtful whether we should kill them." Nevertheless, Baker and his companions followed the animal though a mass of thorns, crawling at times on hands and knees. baker writes, "I was leading the way, and could distinctly hear the rustling of the leaves as the elephants moved their ears. We are now within a few feet of them, but not an inch of their bodies could be seen, so effectually were they hidden by the thick jungle. Suddenly we heard the prolonged wh-r-r, wh-r-r-r-r-r, as one of the elephants winded us; the shrill trumpet sounded in another direction, and the crash though the jungle took place with nothing but an elephant can produce." The three animals split up, and Baker decided to follow the female, running after her for half an hour. She remained downwind, however, and always seemed to stay ahead of him. He writes:
"Speed was our only chance, and again we rushed forward in hot pursuit through the tangled briars, ahich yielded to our weight, although we were almost stripped of clothes. Another half hour passed, and we heard no further signs of the game. We stopped to breathe, adn we listened attentively for the slightest sound. A sudden crash in the jungle at great distance assured us that we were once more discovered. The chase seemed hopeless; the heat was most oppressive; and we had been running for the last hour at a killing pace through a most distressing country. Once more, however, we started off, determined to keep up the pursuit as long as daylight would permit."
Having run for two hours, Baker decided, because of the approach of dusk, that his only chance was to run faster, and he rushed after the elephant. Suddenly he found himself in a thick but low jungle, "through which no man could move except in the track on the retreating elephants." But then he saw the female at forty yards running quickly. In "the hopes of checking her pace," he fired at her ear. According to Baker, the elephant was now "inclined to fight, and she immediately slackened her speed so much that in a few instants [he] was at her tail, so close that [he] could have slapped her." Because fo the thick jungle, though, Baker was suck behind her and decided to fire his "remaining barrel under her tail, giving it an upward direction in the hope of disabling her spine."
Casting his empty gun aside, Baker reached and felt the "welcome barrel" of his spare gun pushed into his hand at the same moment that he "saw the infuriated head of the elephant wit ears cocked charging through the smoke." When the smoke cleared, the elephant "lay dead at six feet from the spot where I stood. The ball was in the centre of her forehead, and B., who had fired over my shoulder so instantaneously with me, that I was not aware of it, had placed his ball within three inches of mine. Had she been missed I should have fired my last shot." With this, Baker pauses to contemplate the "glorious hunt": the great distance that he and his brother ("B.") had travelled, the remarkable fact that despite the distance they had ended up three miles from their camp because the female had circled back, the disappointment that the bull and the younger elephant had "escaped," and the realization that shooting in thick jungles, especially because of the "obscurity occassioned by the smoke of the first barrel," is extraordinarily dangerous.' (61-62)
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QuotesTheodore Roosevelt, African Game Trials (New York, 1910)
Description:Rothfels relates that 'When Roosevelt went to Africa, he was after... elephants. Facing his foe, apparently alone much of the time, and preparing to shoot at the last possible moment, Roosevelt, too, describes a cunning and deadly beast. After a long stalk on a herd of elephants, "keeping ceaselessly ready for whatever might befall," for example, Roosevelt and his hunting companion Richard Cuninghame spotted "a big bull with good ivory." Aiming at a spot near the eye that he thought would lead to the brain, Roosevelt writes, " I struck exactly where I aimed, but the head of an elephant is enourmous and the brain small, and the bullet missed it. However, the shock momentarily stunned the beast. He stumbled forward, half falling, and as he recovered I fired with the second barrel, again aiming for the brain. This time the bullet sped true, and as I lowered the rifle from my shoulder, I saw the great lord of the forest come crashing to the ground." The story doesn't end here, though, Roosevelt continues:
"At that very instant, before there was a moment's time in which to reload, the thick bushes parted immediately on my left front, and through them surged the vast bulk of a charging bull elephant, the matted mass of tough creepers snapping like packthread before his rush. He was so close that he could have touched me with his trunk. I leaped to one side and dodged behind a tree trunk, opening the rifle, throwing out the empty shells, and slipping in two cartridges. Meanwhile Cuninghame fired right and left, at the same time throwing himself into the bushed on the other side. Both his bullets went home, and immediately disappeared in the thick cover. We ran forward, but the forest had closed over his wake. We heard him trumpet shrilly, and then all sounds ceased."' (62-63)
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