by Monte Reel
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About the Author
A former correspondent for The Washington Post, Monte Reel is also the author of The Last of the Tribe.
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A male western lowland gorilla, the species that Du Chaillu encountered in Gabon. Volodymyr Burdiak
Du Chaillu poses in the same kind of outfit he wore during his expeditions for this portrait, taken in 1861. His slight build and youthful appearance made him, according to one magazine, “almost the last man whom one at first sight would set down as a great explorer, adventurous traveler, and a naturalist of no ordinary attainments.” Courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society
Richard Owen, who became Du Chaillu’s de facto patron, is now remembered mostly for his opposition to Darwin’s theory of natural selection. But he was also his generation’s most celebrated anatomist and a target of jealousy among those who envied his cozy relationships with England’s most powerful leaders. Courtesy of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
John Edward Gray was one of the leading zoologists of his era—and also one of the most combative, unafraid to enter public disputes with his peers. Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine
Thomas Henry Huxley, “Darwin’s Bulldog,” positioned himself as the most energetic early defender of the theory of natural selection. “I am prepared to go to the Stake if requisite,” he wrote to Darwin when On the Origin of Species was published. Courtesy of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations
By comparing the features of the human skeleton (left) with the gorilla skeleton (right), Richard Owen reasoned that the gorilla was man’s closest relative in the animal kingdom—a conclusion that turned the newly discovered gorilla into a symbol of the evolution debate. Molecular analysis has shown that chimpanzees have slightly more similarities to man than gorillas do on a genetic level. Vintage illustration from Die Frau als Hausärztin, 1911
An adult male western lowland gorilla. Uryadnikov Sergey
A female western lowland gorilla. Ronald van der Beek
A male western lowland gorilla is shown in his native habitat. Uryadnikov Sergey
Du Chaillu’s gorillas sparked a craze in 1861 for everything ape-related. Enterprising authors, playwrights, and songwriters cashed in on the phenomenon, producing ephemeral hits like “The Gorilla Quadrille.” Courtesy of the National Library of Australia
At the same time Du Chaillu displayed his gorillas on Broadway, P. T. Barnum unveiled a living exhibit he called the “What Is It?” Barnum claimed the “creature” had been captured in Africa, but in truth he’d clothed a man suffering from a disfiguring developmental disorder in a suit of fur. Courtesy of the New-York Historical Society
Sir Richard Burton (shown here late in life) befriended Du Chaillu and followed his footsteps by searching for gorillas in Gabon. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
As president of the rapidly expanding Royal Geographical Society, Roderick Impey Murchison sponsored British explorers all over the globe. Most famous among them were his “lions”—travelers like David Livingstone—who ventured to unmapped regions of Africa. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
The Reverend Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the most popular evangelist in Victorian England, opened his Metropolitan Tabernacle weeks after Du Chaillu’s gorillas debuted in London. Within weeks the Prince of Preachers was addressing the subject of evolution, inviting Du Chaillu—and one of his specimens—into his tabernacle. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
This cartoon, called “Monkeyana,” appeared in Punch in May 1861. The gorilla’s placard parodies the slogan used by slavery abolitionists in England.
The frontispiece of Du Chaillu’s bestselling Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa (1861) depicted a male gorilla in a humanlike pose, complete with strategically placed foliage to shield readers from the animal’s immodesty. From Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa (1861)
Du Chaillu attempted to take photographs of gorillas (such as the ones comically depicted here, captured during his second expedition), but the plates did not survive his rushed retreat. From Du Chaillu’s book The Country of the Dwarfs (1872)
One of the most thrilling—and doubted—stories Du Chaillu told was of a native hunter who’d been killed by a gorilla and left for dead with the barrel of his gun bent, presumably by the gorilla. From Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa (1861)
An illustration depicts Paul and his African porters fighting back against the villagers they had angered—and infected with smallpox—during their journeys. From Du Chaillu’s book Journey to Ashango-Land (1867)
After being criticized for not using astronomical observations to verify the route of his travels, Du Chaillu apprenticed with some of England’s leading astronomers and geographers, learning how to use sextants and chronometers to determine his latitude and longitude. From Du Chaillu’s book The Country of the Dwarfs (1872)
Du Chaillu, pictured here in the 1890s, spent most of his later years in the United States, which he often claimed as his homeland. “He still speaks with a decided French accent that betrays his nativity in the old city of New Orleans,” the Washington Post reported near the end of his life. Courtesy of the Harvard Fine Arts Library
ALSO BY MONTE REEL
The Last of the Tribe