Carl Akeley's Africa
by: Mary L. Jobe Akeley

Hardcover. NY, Dodd, Mead & Company, 2nd pr., 1929, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth with gilt and black decoration, 321 pages. Illustrated with decorated endpapers (map) and vintage black and white photographs. Carl Than Akeley (1864-1926) was a taxidermist, naturalist and inventor was born near Clarendon, New York. Akeley would make five expeditions to Africa collecting specimens, first for the Field Museum in Chicago, and then for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1911 he proposed to Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the museum, a plan to present animal groups against painted backgrounds that would faithfully recreate the habitat which the animals lived. He had many adventures on the trips to Africa, including one where he was attacked by a leopard. Akeley died on his last expedition in his camp, near Mount Mikeno. This book is an account of Akeley's last expedition, and has a foreword by Henry Fairfield Osborn. The book is shaken and binding a little loose but holding, no loose pages. Previous owner's inscription on blank pelim page otherwise clean.