Paul Du Chaillu | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 31, 1831/1835/1839 |
| Died | April 16/29, 1903 St. Petersburg, Russia |
| Occupation(s) | Explorer,anthropologist |
| Known for | "Discovery" of gorilla, Pygmy people |
Paul Belloni Du Chaillu (July 31, 1831 (disputed) – April 29, 1903) was a French-American traveler,zoologist, andanthropologist. He became famous in the 1860s as the first modern European outsider to confirm the existence ofgorillas, and later thePygmy people ofcentral Africa. He later researched theprehistory of Scandinavia.
There are conflicting reports of both the year and place of Du Chaillu's birth. The year is variously given as 1831 (the consensus of modern scholars),[1][2][3] 1835, or 1839; the date when given is July 31. Accounts usually cite either Paris orNew Orleans[3] as his likely place of birth. A contemporary obituary quotes a statement made by Du Chaillu referring to "the United States, my country by adoption, and ... France, my native land."[4] His entry in the 1901-1902 edition ofMarquis Who's Who — which was based on information he supplied directly to the editors — says 1838 in New Orleans.[5] His grave marker identifies his place of birth asLouisiana, and the year as 1839.
Edward Clodd, Du Chaillu's friend, told the story differently in his memoirs. Clodd mentionedNew York as another claimed location, but asserted that Du Chaillu's true birthplace was the FrenchIndian Ocean island territory ofÎle Bourbon (now calledRéunion). He further claimed that du Chaillu's mother was amulatto woman.[6] In 1979, historian Henry H. Bucher presented evidence to back Clodd's view, including records of Du Chaillu's father. Bucher argued that Du Chaillu, as a member of the European scientific community, would have tried to obfuscate or conceal the family history that would have labeled him aquadroon. In the 19th century atmosphere ofscientific racism, great apes andSub-Saharan Africans were often considered to both have smallcranial capacity, and thus be innately unable to achieve civilization; Du Chaillu's credibility as a scientist and explorer would have suffered as a result. Indeed, comments in a letter by Du Chaillu's contemporary, the ethnologist of AfricaMary Kingsley, indicate that at least some scientists who thought poorly of Du Chaillu knew of his ancestry or other information presumed to be disqualifying.[7]
In his youth, he accompanied his father, a French trader in the employment of a Parisian firm, to the west coast of Africa where, at a station on theGabon, he was educated by missionaries and acquired an interest in and knowledge of the country, its natural history, its natives, and their languages before emigrating to the U.S. in 1852.[8]
He was sent in 1855 by theAcademy of Natural Sciences atPhiladelphia on an African expedition. Until 1859, he explored the regions ofWest Africa in the neighborhood of the equator, gaining considerable knowledge of the delta of theOgooué River and the estuary of the Gabon.[8] During his travels from 1856 to 1859, he observed numerousgorillas, known to non-locals in prior centuries only from an unreliable and ambiguous report credited toHanno the Navigator ofCarthage 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 European person to have seen them.[9]
A subsequent expedition, from 1863 to 1865, enabled him to confirm the accounts given by the ancients of apygmy people inhabiting the African forests.[8] Du Chaillu sold his hunted gorillas to theNatural History Museum in London. His efforts to keep captive baby gorilla infants alive were unsuccessful, as the infants proved to be "morose," "ill-tempered," and subject to "a feeling of revenge."[10] He sold his "cannibal skulls" to other European collections; a fine cased group shot by Du Chaillu may be seen in theIpswich Museum inSuffolk, England.
Narratives of both expeditions were published, in 1861 and 1867 respectively, under the titlesExplorations 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; andA Journey to Ashango-land, and further penetration into Equatorial Africa.[8] While in Ashango Land in 1865, he was elected King of theApingi [fr] 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 to be accepted, althoughEncyclopædia Britannica speculated that "possibly some of the adventures he described as happening to himself were reproductions of the hunting stories of natives."[8]
In addition to his zoological work on gorillas, Du Chaillu collected and identified a number of new species to science. He was the first person to scientifically describe thegiant otter shrew (Potamogale velox), taking precedence overJohn Edward Gray's description of the same animal as a mouse instead. He also collected the type specimens for thesouthern needle-clawed bushbaby (Euoticus elegantulus), thehammer-headed bat (Hypsignathus monstrosus), and theAfrican pygmy squirrel (Myosciurus pumilio), all West African species. Despite not being an ornithological collector, he collected the types specimens for thirty-nine valid species of African birds.[11] Du Chaillu collected the type series ofAmnirana albolabris (Hallowell, 1856) from Gabon.
After some years' residence in America, during which he wrote several books for the young based on his African adventures, Du Chaillu turned his attention to northern Europe.[8] After a visit to northern Norway in 1871, over the following five years, he made a study of customs and antiquities in Sweden, Norway,Lapland and Northern Finland. He published in 1881The Land of the Midnight Sun[12] (dedicated to his friendRobert Winthrop of New York), as a series of Summer and Winter Journeys, in two volumes.
His 1889 workThe Viking Age,[13] also in two volumes, was a very broad study of the early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations.[14] He labored for eight and a half years and carefully read hundreds of Sagas that describe the life of the people who inhabited theScandinavian Peninsula from theStone Age to theMiddle Ages (including literary remains). This scholarly work demonstrates what is now generally recognized, the importance of theNorse, including Norway, Sweden, and Denmark to the cultural dimension and transformation ofBritish Isles during the fifth to eleventh centuries. This view was then unfamiliar and was ridiculed by many of his contemporaries, including CanonIsaac Taylor. This book, in two volumes, is now a very collectible item. In 1900, he also publishedThe Land of the Long Night.
Du Chaillu was a friend ofEdward Clodd and was present at one of Clodd'sWhitsun gatherings at Strafford House,Aldeburgh,Suffolk, in company withJohn Rhys,Grant Allen,York Powell andJoseph Thomson. He was a member along with a variety of mostly literary figures in authorJ. M. Barrie's amateurcricket team, the "Allahakbarries".
He died following a stroke of paralysis atSt. Petersburg, while on a scholarly visit to Russia as part of his research on the Scandinavian peoples.[15] He is interred atWoodlawn Cemetery inthe Bronx,New York City.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Du Chaillu, Paul Belloni".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 8 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 629.{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link).
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