Delia Akeley

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Delia Julia Akeley (born December 5, 1875 in Beaver Dam , Dodge County , Wisconsin , † May 22, 1970 in Daytona Beach , Florida ), also known by her nickname Mickie , was an American explorer and author.

Life

She was born to the Irish immigrants Patrick and Margaret (née Hanberry) Denning.

Expedition 1906, in Uganda
An elephant shot by Delia Akeley within a group in the Africa Hall of the American Museum of Natural History, New York
Kenya, 1906, the expedition camp in the background

In 1902 she married the taxidermist Carl Ethan Akeley , who previously worked at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and later at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. She accompanied him on expeditions hunting and collecting samples and exhibits for the museums where he worked.

Some of these exhibits are part of the most important collections in the African sections of both museums, including a specimen from the African elephant family that Delia shot for the New York Museum.

While on an elephant hunt in Kenya for the American Museum of Natural History, Carl Akeley was attacked by a bull elephant while he was out with porters and helpers. The troops believed there was nothing more they could do for him, which is why they fled. But Carl had survived and was saved thanks to Delia, who rushed to him with two of the porters who had fled. He was seriously injured, but despite the difficult transport in the rough terrain, he could be taken to a hospital. She also took care of him when he nearly died of blackwater fever . After his recovery, the Akeleys returned to New York in 1920, accompanied by a pet monkey named "JT Jr." whom they picked up during their expedition.

Carl Akeley began to look after preparations for his scientific dioramas in New York and became acquainted with Mary Jobe , who also traveled to Africa for research purposes . Delia got hogged down by her research on JT, the monkey turned out to be not only quite intelligent but also very jealous. What exactly led to this is not known, but tensions developed between the couple, which led to their divorce in 1923. Carl then married Mary Jobe in 1924 and set off with her to research the mountain gorillas in Africa, where he died of an illness in 1926.

After her divorce, Delia continued to travel to Africa from 1924, but this time on her own expeditions, on which she concentrated more on the ethnography of the withdrawn tribes such as the pygmies living in the forest . She was one of the first people from the western world to cross the desert between Kenya and Ethiopia and discovered the Tana River , which she sailed from the Indian Ocean with a dugout canoe. She also lived for a few months with the pygmies of the Ituri rainforest in Zaire .

Delia Akeley died in 1970 at the age of 94. Her autobiographical works were originally called Jungle Portraits and All True! . She was also one of the first authors to write a non- anthromorphic but psychological insightful biography of another primate: "JT Jr." The Biography of an African Monkey . Her merits include the discovery of an unknown species of antelope and a bird.

Together with Christina Dodwell , Mary Kingsley , Florence Baker and Alexandrine Tinné , she was one of the five biographers in Margo McLoone's book, Women explorers in Africa .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Our Amazing Planet Staff: 8 Unsung Women Explorers . LiveScience.com. April 30, 2012. Retrieved August 23, 2013.
  2. ^ "Jungle Portraits", "Jungle Rescue," pp 249-249, by Delia Akeley, MacMillan 1930
  3. ↑ Jungle Portraits, Akeley, Delia J., 1930, MacMillan, pp. 159-229
  4. ↑ Papers of Princeton: Daily Princetonian: Delia Akeley, Courageous Woman Explorer, Describes Bicycle Riding After Elephants  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Vol. 59, No. 12, February 21, 1934@1@ 2Template: dead link / libserv23.princeton.edu  
  5. ^ The Field Museum's: Past Pioneers: Delia Akeley
  6. ↑ Margo McLoone, Women explorers in Africa: Christina Dodwell, Delia Akeley, Mary Kingsley, Florence von Sass-Baker, and Alexandrine Tinne (Capstone Press, 1997)
personal data
SURNAME Akeley, Delia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Akeley, Delia Julia (full name); Denning, Delia Julia (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American explorer
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Beaver Dam , Wisconsin
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1970
Place of death Daytona Beach , Florida