Paul du Chaillu
Encyclopedia
Paul Belloni du Chaillu was a French-American traveler and anthropologist. He became famous in the 1860s as the first modern outsider to confirm the existence of gorilla
s and the Pygmy
people of central Africa
. He later researched the prehistory of Scandinavia
.
mentioned New York
as another claimed location but asserted that du Chaillu's true birthplace was the French island territory of Bourbon (Réunion
). A contemporary obituary cites a statement made by du Chaillu referring to "the United States, my country by adoption, and ... France, my native land." His grave marker identifies his place of birth as Louisiana, and the year as 1839.
In his youth, he accompanied his father, a French trader in the employment of a Parisian firm, to the west coast of Africa. There, at a station on the Gabon
, he was educated by missionaries and acquired an interest in and knowledge of the country, its natural history, its natives, and their languages.
at Philadelphia on an African expedition. Until 1859, he explored the regions of West Africa
in the neighborhood of the equator, gaining considerable knowledge of the delta of the Ogooué River
and the estuary of the Gabon. During his travels from 1856 to 1859, he observed numerous gorilla
s, known to non-locals in prior centuries only from an unreliable report by Hanno the Navigator
of Carthage
in the 5th century BC and known to scientists in the preceding years only by a few skeletons. He brought back dead specimens and presented himself as the first white person to have seen them.
A subsequent expedition, from 1863 to 1865, enabled him to confirm the accounts given by the ancients of a pygmy
people inhabiting the African forests. Du Chaillu sold his hunted gorillas to the Natural History Museum
in London and his "cannibal skulls" to other European collections. (A fine cased group shot by du Chaillu may be seen in Ipswich Museum
in Suffolk
, England.) Narratives of both expeditions were published, in 1861 and 1867 respectively, under the titles Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the Chace of the Gorilla, Crocodile, and other Animals; and A Journey to Ashango-land, and further penetration into Equatorial Africa. While in Ashango Land in 1865, he was elected King of the Apingi tribe. A later narrative, The Country of the Dwarfs was published in 1872.
At the time, he was in great demand on the public lecture circuits of New York, London, and Paris. Although there were initial challenges of his accounts, they came be accepted, although Encyclopædia Britannica speculated that "possibly some of the adventures he described as happening to himself were reproductions of the hunting stories of natives."
and Northern Finland. He published in 1881 The Land of the Midnight Sun (dedicated to his friend Robert Winthrop of New York), as a series of Summer and Winter Journeys, in two volumes.
His 1889 work The Viking Age (also in two volumes) was a very broad study of the early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations. He labored for eight and a half years and carefully read hundreds of Sagas that describe the life of the people who inhabited the Scandinavian peninsula
from the Stone Age
to the Middle Ages
(including literary remains). This scholarly work demonstrates what is now generally recognised, the importance of the Norse
, including Norway, Sweden, and Denmark to the cultural dimension and transformation of British Isles
during the fifth to eleventh centuries. This view was then unfamiliar and was ridiculed by Canon Isaac Taylor
. This book (in two volumes) is now a very collectible item. In 1900, he also published The Land of the Long Night.
and was present at one of Clodd's Whitsun
gatherings at Strafford House, Aldeburgh
, Suffolk
, in company with John Rhys
, Grant Allen
, York Powell and Joseph Thomson
. He was a member along with a variety of mostly literary figures in author J. M. Barrie
's amateur cricket team, the "Allahakbarries
".
He died following a stroke of paralysis at St. Petersburg
, while on his way home from Russia. He is interred under an unusual grave marker at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York
.
Gorilla
Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
s and the Pygmy
Pygmy
Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...
people of central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
. He later researched the prehistory of Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
.
Early life
His date and place of birth are disputed. The year is variously given as 1831, 1835, or 1839; the date when given is July 31. Accounts cite either Paris or New Orleans as his likely place of birth, and his friend Edward CloddEdward Clodd
Edward Clodd was an English banker, writer and anthropologist. He cultivated a very wide circle of literary and scientific friends, who periodically met at Whitsun gatherings at his home at Aldeburgh, Suffolk....
mentioned New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
as another claimed location but asserted that du Chaillu's true birthplace was the French island territory of Bourbon (Réunion
Réunion
Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...
). A contemporary obituary cites a statement made by du Chaillu referring to "the United States, my country by adoption, and ... France, my native land." His grave marker identifies his place of birth as Louisiana, and the year as 1839.
In his youth, he accompanied his father, a French trader in the employment of a Parisian firm, to the west coast of Africa. There, at a station on the Gabon
Gabon Estuary
The Gabon River or Gabon Estuary is a short wide estuary in the west of Gabon. The capital Libreville has a large port on the north bank of the estuary which collects water from the River Komo and River Ebe. The estuary empties into the Gulf of Guinea. The estuary is locally known as the Estuaire...
, he was educated by missionaries and acquired an interest in and knowledge of the country, its natural history, its natives, and their languages.
Africa
He was sent in 1855 by the Academy of Natural SciencesAcademy of Natural Sciences
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the New World...
at Philadelphia on an African expedition. Until 1859, he explored the regions of West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
in the neighborhood of the equator, gaining considerable knowledge of the delta of the Ogooué River
Ogooué River
The Ogooué , some 1,200 km long, is the principal river of Gabon in west central Africa. Its watershed drains nearly the entire country of Gabon, with some tributaries reaching into the Republic of the Congo, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea....
and the estuary of the Gabon. During his travels from 1856 to 1859, he observed numerous gorilla
Gorilla
Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. They are ground-dwelling, predominantly herbivorous apes that inhabit the forests of central Africa. Gorillas are divided into two species and either four or five subspecies...
s, known to non-locals in prior centuries only from an unreliable report by Hanno the Navigator
Hanno the Navigator
Hanno the Navigator was a Carthaginian explorer c. 500 BC, best known for his naval exploration of the African coast...
of Carthage
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
in the 5th century BC and known to scientists in the preceding years only by a few skeletons. He brought back dead specimens and presented himself as the first white person to have seen them.
A subsequent expedition, from 1863 to 1865, enabled him to confirm the accounts given by the ancients of a pygmy
Pygmy
Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...
people inhabiting the African forests. Du Chaillu sold his hunted gorillas to the Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England . Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road...
in London and his "cannibal skulls" to other European collections. (A fine cased group shot by du Chaillu may be seen in Ipswich Museum
Ipswich Museum
Ipswich Museum is a registered museum of culture, history and natural heritage located on High Street in Ipswich, the County Town of the English county of Suffolk...
in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England.) Narratives of both expeditions were published, in 1861 and 1867 respectively, under the titles Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, with Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the Chace of the Gorilla, Crocodile, and other Animals; and A Journey to Ashango-land, and further penetration into Equatorial Africa. While in Ashango Land in 1865, he was elected King of the Apingi tribe. A later narrative, The Country of the Dwarfs was published in 1872.
At the time, he was in great demand on the public lecture circuits of New York, London, and Paris. Although there were initial challenges of his accounts, they came be accepted, although Encyclopædia Britannica speculated that "possibly some of the adventures he described as happening to himself were reproductions of the hunting stories of natives."
Northern Europe
After some years residence in America, during which he wrote several books for the young founded upon his African adventures, du Chaillu turned his attention to northern Europe. After a visit to northern Norway in 1871, over the following five years, he made a study of customs and antiquities in Sweden, Norway, LaplandLapland (region)
Lapland is a region in northern Fennoscandia, largely within the Arctic Circle. It streches across Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula . On the North it is bounded by the Barents Sea, on the West by the Norwegian Sea and on the East by the White Sea...
and Northern Finland. He published in 1881 The Land of the Midnight Sun (dedicated to his friend Robert Winthrop of New York), as a series of Summer and Winter Journeys, in two volumes.
His 1889 work The Viking Age (also in two volumes) was a very broad study of the early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations. He labored for eight and a half years and carefully read hundreds of Sagas that describe the life of the people who inhabited the Scandinavian peninsula
Scandinavian Peninsula
The Scandinavian Peninsula is a peninsula in Northern Europe, which today covers Norway, Sweden, and most of northern Finland. Prior to the 17th and 18th centuries, large parts of the southern peninsula—including the core region of Scania from which the peninsula takes its name—were part of...
from the Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
to the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
(including literary remains). This scholarly work demonstrates what is now generally recognised, the importance of the Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
, including Norway, Sweden, and Denmark to the cultural dimension and transformation of British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
during the fifth to eleventh centuries. This view was then unfamiliar and was ridiculed by Canon Isaac Taylor
Isaac Taylor (canon)
Isaac Taylor , son of Isaac Taylor, was a philologist, toponymist, and Anglican canon of York .- Life :...
. This book (in two volumes) is now a very collectible item. In 1900, he also published The Land of the Long Night.
Personal life
Du Chaillu was a friend of Edward CloddEdward Clodd
Edward Clodd was an English banker, writer and anthropologist. He cultivated a very wide circle of literary and scientific friends, who periodically met at Whitsun gatherings at his home at Aldeburgh, Suffolk....
and was present at one of Clodd's Whitsun
Whitsun
Whitsun is the name used in the UK for the Christian festival of Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples...
gatherings at Strafford House, Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh
Aldeburgh is a coastal town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. Located on the River Alde, the town is notable for its Blue Flag shingle beach and fisherman huts where freshly caught fish are sold daily, and the Aldeburgh Yacht Club...
, Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, in company with John Rhys
John Rhys
Sir John Rhys was a Welsh scholar, fellow of the British Academy, celticist and the first Professor of Celtic at Oxford University.-Early years and education:...
, Grant Allen
Grant Allen
Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen was a science writer, author and novelist, and a successful upholder of the theory of evolution.-Biography:...
, York Powell and Joseph Thomson
Joseph Thomson (explorer)
Joseph Thomson was a Scottish geologist and explorer who played an important part in the Scramble for Africa. Thomson's Gazelle is named for him. Excelling as an explorer rather than an exact scientist, he avoided confrontations among his porters or with indigenous peoples, neither killing any...
. He was a member along with a variety of mostly literary figures in author J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
's amateur cricket team, the "Allahakbarries
Allahakbarries
Allahakbarries was an amateur cricket team founded by author J. M. Barrie, and was active from 1890 to 1913. The team was named in the mistaken belief that Allah akbar meant Heaven help us in Arabic . Notable figures to have featured for the side included Arthur Conan Doyle, Jerome K. Jerome, A. A....
".
He died following a stroke of paralysis at St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
, while on his way home from Russia. He is interred under an unusual grave marker at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.