Citation Needed - Carl Akeley

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

Carl Ethan Akeley (May 19, 1864 – November 17, 1926) was a pioneering American taxidermist, sculptor, biologist, conservationist, inventor, and nature photographer, noted for his contributions to American museums, most notably to the Milwaukee Public Museum, Field Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. He is considered the father of modern taxidermy.[1] He was the founder of the AMNH Exhibitions Lab, the interdisciplinary department that fuses scientific research with immersive design. Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find our Patreon page here.  Be sure to check our website for more details.

And when it turned out she'd been a horse the whole show, I know it was right there in the title the whole plot so good A little bit of left my left door comes My my left I'm yours. Yeah Monday Monday, okay guys. I'll bite this time. What why? What ah, yes. Noah, Cecil, welcome to the Hall of Podcasting. Okay, I thought we hadn't settled on Hall of Podcasting. I didn't. Yeah, we didn't say it in the search hall.

I said we'd put a pin in the title conversation, Tom. You're still using it. Keith, Tom, and I were thinking about this week's episode. About Carl Ackley? Yeah, he worked so hard to preserve what he cared about, you know? And we got to think in, what about podcasts? Yeah, okay, but they're on the internet. People can just,

no, no, no, not that part of podcasting. No, like the lived part, you know? Right, yeah. Like, nobody gets to see this, guys, this, like, you know, buying a microphone that you'll never use. Yeah. Am I using it? Am I using it?

My backups could fail. Backups, backups could fail. Oh, for this exhibit, going over the edit, just one more time, even though you know the episode is done. Oh, okay, so that's an important one. I get that. Right, yeah. And of course, a core of the exhibit, episode is done. Oh, okay. So that's an important one. I get that. People need to know.

Right. And of course, the core of the exhibit, explaining to your parents what a podcast is. Yeah. That's a good one. Right? Really capture the disappointment and the dad's eyes there for sure. Thank you. It took a while to get that.

He hates us so much. Hello and welcome! The POTCAST, where we choose a subject read a single article about it on Wikipedia and pretend we're experts, because this is the internet, and that's how it works now. I'm Eli Bosnick and I'll be leading this expedition, but I'll need some ideal specimens in the wild world of podcasting. First up, two men whose luscious mains are the envy of poachers everywhere, Cecil and Noah. It's the ancient remedy for the opposite of male enhancement.

That's what my man is. Oh no, okay, that explains all the bongs I've been seeing under boxes. We're still holding up one. All right. All right. Finally. And also joining us tonight, two men who assure you they each want their own rhinoceros, heath and gum.

What is for the table even? Even me. He he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, Thomas, Heath, I like that. I like a reverse, he's spin slide. Ooh, April, April, April, this year. Before we begin tonight, I'd like to take a moment to thank our patrons. And if you'd like to learn how to join their ranks, be sure to stick around to the end of the show and with that out of the way, tell us Noah, what person, place, thing, concept, phenomenon, or event we'll be talking about today. Today we're going to be talking about Carl Ackley. And Tom, you're obviously trying to get on Carl's good side so that you're not as next victim. Are you going to follow this trail wherever it goes?

Well, Eli, I've lived my whole life just trying to feel stuff. So let's do it. So tell us, Tom, who was Carl Akalali? All right, guys, I've been wanting to tell this story for a long time, but it's a timing just wasn't right until now. Because this is a story of a guy so unbelievably badass that if we just like rushed right into it without being properly prepared, we'd almost certainly tear something. I'm going to tell you a story today about a guy whose name you almost certainly didn't already know, but whose work you may have seen and his influences, you have certainly felt.

And while his occupation and craft is absolutely buggy whip outdated, this is a man who lived enough life for you, me, and everyone else you've ever met. This is a story of Carl Ackley. I feel like you're avoiding Eli's question on that kind of little bit. He's like a politician that was just asked

to name his favorite Supreme Court question. I got back around to the question you see and then we'll start. If I formed an ad hoc committee to decide, I'm spending more time with my family in lieu of recent event. Okay. Or on a farm in Clarence, New York in 1864, Carl Ackley was even a very young age, much more interested than most in animals. Now, you might be thinking, I don't know, Tom, I really like animals. And yeah, okay, you probably do, you know. But Carl spent his time in the woods teaching himself to paint incredibly realistic renderings of them with absolutely no training. Still not impressed, okay?

Well, he was poor and his family didn't have any proper paints. So Carl improvised and taught himself to paint without direction on how to paint and also using his own blood as the media. His own blood. Hey, Carl, just so many other red things. There's so many things that are, I feel like you shut down that brainstorm real quick. Well, Heath, you know what they say.

It is thicker than watercolor. Oh, it's just. All right. It's obviously blood porches of chipmunks. We're just going to cut it forever. We all have to learn that last one. It's a tough one. It's a tough one. It's a tough one.

How Carl was just really fascinated with nature and animals. And at the age of 12, he discovered what would end up being the first step toward his life's work. When his cousin's pec canary died, he saw that she was distraught and asked if he might be allowed to stuff the bird for her to, quote, fix it. Uh, you see, Carl had seen the work of taxidermist David Bruce at a free exhibit in Rochester not long before and he was mesmerized by the idea of the whole thing. So we took his cousin's canary, skinned it, stuffed it, sewed out a couple

of glass beads for us. Jesus. And presented this nightmarish craft project to her presumably so that her fear and revulsion would eclipse her terrible grief. Hey, Abby, you're cousin who paints in his own blood, tuck it upon himself to create sort of an HP lovecraft potty horror of your cat and then freeze it in a pose of liver and death. Why don't you come say thank you so that we're not as first victims? of living death. Why don't you come say thank you so that we're not as first victims. I'm so thank you. You guys. So Carl would spend the next six years learning all that he could about taxidermy before

moving to Rochester to pursue his passion. It is at this point though that I feel like I do need to pause. I need to explain to you what was meant by taxidermy in the late 1800s before Carl Aikli came along. Taxidermy was, at this point, to put it very gently, a crude affair. Yeah, it's not the classy art the taxidermy is. Exactly. By comparison, Eli, the taxidermists would typically take the animal they were working with. It would skin it. They would treat the skin so it mostly didn't rot entirely. Then they would stuff the skin with, and here I am not exaggerating at all,

just whatever crap they had lying around. Just for real. So let me paint you a picture. Imagine for yourself a lion, which has been shot, killed, and skin. That skin now treated is just a formless lump. It's not really lion-shaped in any way yet. The taxidermists would just start stuffing the empty skin, like cramming a pillow into a pillowcase. And one thing And what would he stuff this lion skin with? Well, straw, sometimes if they had it or cotton,

or actual fucking garbage that they had just laying around, they weren't spending money on this season, just whatever was about. So instead of, at the end, instead of a lion, you basically had a weird, distorted, over-stuffed novelty side-show lion-shaped thing that mostly kind of didn't rot. Carl referred to this as the upholstery method of taxidermic. Did they stuff garbage in their couches? Well, I know we're laughing, but this is, this method is still in use today. That's literally how Ted Cruz keeps his shape. It is a garbage.

Someone's holding Ted Cruz under their chin and stuff. Not resisting. All right, gentlemen, I can't just leave it there. And I know this is not a visual medium, but I would be depriving you of, I can't just leave it there and I know this is not a visual medium, but I would be depriving you of I didn't share with you a photo of a lion taster me, which was in a fucking museum in 1838. This picture gentleman take a look. This was museum quality in 1838. So we're looking at a lion. What are we?

What's supposed to be a lion? It's just about to take a bite of an antelope or something like that. And the shape of the lion, yeah, it's not great. It's not great. It's not great. It's not great. The eyes are the blood that we're in the same. Like this lion's mom very clearly just walked in from the other room being like, honey, just make sure you don't eat the live antelope with burpees in the same like this lion's mom very clearly just walked in from the other room being like honey

just make sure you don't eat the live analog with herpes in the fridge. Ah, you started. Oh my god, it is to lion as like, you know, like when you're near sighted grandma, but be niche baby. Sorry, Tom, you said this was in a museum. Folks, if this is museum quality, we just don't do this. Right? This is like starting a space program when you just have catapult. You're not. It is not the time.

I want to pipe it here as a medieval recreationist. I think it looks fine. I think it's okay. That's it. That's it. That's it. I know, obviously the field, not yet in its prime, and Carl was convinced that he could do better,

that he could create pieces that were vastly more realistic and lifelike, and that would better represent the truth and the beauty of the beasts of the wild. So Carl took an apprenticeship with the only taxidermist round who wasn't just overstuffing bloated animal skins to bursting like it was heathen-eye at a Vegas moment. This is a guy named Henry Ward. Any operated Ward's natural science establishment.

Henry Ward struck a hard bargain with Carl and exchanged for the kingly sum of $3.50 a week. Carl agreed to work every single day, Sunday through Monday with no vacations and no holidays and no meal breaks from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. But in exchange, he was free to practice his own methods. Just as soon as he had completed his 11 hour shift, somehow Carl found the time to work on his own methods for taxater. Well, there are 168 hours in a week, Tom. He's only working 77 of them.

Okay. It's like, that's not the half. I mean, you know, people just don't want to work anymore as what it is. That's what happens. The government hand out. Gotta get rid of that 1800s unemployment. Right.

Right. Oh, one of the first things Carl notices that I didn't notice it fairly quickly, the actual bodies were not in fact just like skin tubes filled with undifferentiated gloves. Speak for yourself. What did I say? I got a Ted Cruz is recalled in the moment.

It's a desired life-like effect was not gonna be achieved by simply piling a bunch of rags into a first sack. Selling like my doctor. Pfft. Animals that turns out were in fact full of bony skeletal structures and muscles and sinew and the like. Carl said about creating a framework that matched the build and composition of the sinew, and the like. Carl said about creating a framework that matched the build and composition of the original animal,

sometimes using the original animal's own bones as that framework. He then used plaster and modeling clay to sculpt an interior of the animal that he was working with so that the musculature and shape of the creature was realistic before carefully laying the preserved skin and hide over the framework, masterfully hiding any seams. He was thorough and he was meticulous, and honestly his results were extraordinary.

Okay, so I don't wanna downplay the importance of Carl's innovations here, but he revolutionized the industry by realizing that animals had bones. And the motion was so much easier, fact, than to do so. One guy turns to another guy, It must have been so much easier. One guy turns to another guy. Animals used to be crunchier.

You know, he just used to be crunchier. Oh, back in the day. Now, he was, of course, fired. What? Yeah, not for his work, but for falling asleep on the job from exhaustion. Carl felt hurt and betrayed it having been fired and he left Rochester to work for commercial taxidermists in New York City. This job was worse than last though, as the owner was described as quote, irrascible and

dominating and the work was uninteresting and unfulfilling, leaving Carl with no room to expand on his craft. Thankfully Henry Ward quickly realized that he had fucked up in firing Carl and wrote a melodic apologizing and asked him to come back to Rochester, which Carl did in 1884. Let her just read, sorry Carl, you're right. They are filled with bones. There's bones. I checked there's no garbage in there at all.

Henry Ward doesn't get his just filling him entirely with bones. There's two more. He's just filling him entirely with bones. But they're too far. And where's Carl? It was at this point that things began to get interest. You promised home. Shots fire. Okay. All right. You see, PT Barnum's elephant jumbo had just died.

And he needed to be taxidermied for reason. They don't say why. Barnum turned award and award turned to Carl. The process of preserving the massive beast, the Carl way, took five months to complete. I'll probably because they didn't have enough garbage laying around to stuff the housing. But the result was a presentation far more lifellike than taxidermy to ever before produced. That elephant was, in some ways, a big break.

And two years later, Carl Ackley was working at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. He stuck inside the elephant like he's trying to fold a fitted sheet. He's fucking, I need a finger. I need some more. Finally, it's corner. You know what, just watered up and sticking in the fucking closet. That's what I was saying. Now it is time again for a quick moment of digression.

Okay, so how many digressions deep are we? We're two. Exactly two. Okay. Oh, damn it. All right. Remember, this was the lady. He pushed into a tub of cold water.

How will we sink it up? All right. Remember this was the late into a tub of cold water. How will we sink it up? Remember this was the late 1800s and America and the world hadn't figured out a goddamn thing about how the world worked yet. But we had figured out God's. And anyone at this point who felt like doing so could just travel on a big game trip to Africa and kill the ever loving shit out of whatever caught their eye. The idea of conservation, while not strictly a new idea, was not widely accepted. An enormous populations of massive game animals in Africa were being slaughtered just for the funsies of it. There was a real concern that many of the large game species that would be

hunted would be hunted right into extinction, leaving no trace of having ever existed. Those who curated natural history museums felt the need to preserve the legacy of the natural world, not just to document it, but to literally physically conserve evidence that these animals were in fact real. So when I tell you the next part of the story, keep in mind that the hunting and stuffing of animals was thought of at the time as a legitimate scientific documentary record.

After some time at the Field Museum, Carl took a job at the American Museum of Natural History in New York for $0. That was his salary. That could work, it could work. His only stip, yeah. His only stipulation on his work was that the museum finances expeditions to Africa so that he could hunt, he could work. He's only stip, yeah. His only stipulation on his work was at the museum finances expeditions to Africa

so that he could hunt, kill, and ultimately preserve a number of species he found fascinating across the continent. His goal was to be basically a kind of reverse known. Who does this to people in Georgia? He goes out, she's a certain, he's a certain, no one. Oh, I was like, no one, James the Lines of many,

and after I was doing the math on the Lines of many. After I was doing the math on no illusions, it was very confusing. This is the original Noah on this recording. Like there was a name safe. Okay. So the idea was you would kill between two and five of every big animal he could find

and then take them back to his weird build a bear, Frankenstein lab, preserve their corpses. So we could all feel a little guilty looking at them 140 years later. So to make sure they survived into the future, he killed them. Yes. How very American. All right. Well, red flags, the guy is about to go on his first killing screen, but it's animals.

So it's good. I think I don't know. Tom's going to explain. Let's take a break for a little after a poll of nothing. first killing screen, but it's animals, so it's good. I think, I don't know, Tom's gonna explain, what's up? Greetings, Steven. Ah, yeah, so the guys and I, we're gonna go out for a few beers after work. Do you wanna come along? Alcohol? Why at dulls of the senses?

Why would I want a few of this world less than I can? I don't know, it's...it's Taco Tuesday. I can't not for the taco. It is man's attempt to hide his kills beneath the taco shell of his own fear. When you destroy life, you should know it, Steven. You should celebrate it. You are become a god. Fun, yeah, totally.

Totally. Hey, speaking of you talking like that, we got a chance to look over your proposal for you going to a different continent and not being on this one and, um, yeah approved. It was approved unanimously. So go ahead and do that. Everyone would like you to do that. Excellent. I shall freeze the world's most exotic life and time for all of it. It sounds good. And just one one other thing, there's cake in the break room for Carol's birthday if you want some cake. The sweet replacement for life. So, so no, you would not like cake. No, I'll have cake. Okay, cool, it's back there.

Is there a quarter piece? No, there's not a corner piece. And we're back. When we left off, Jeffrey Dahmer was really taken to his job at the panning factory. He's a. Jesus Christ. This isn't going to do. Okay. Anyway, on his first expedition to Africa, Carl was in Somali land hunting for Wardhog

and Hyena. And he had gotten one of each earlier in the day. However, when Carl went to look for and retrieve the dead animals, they were not where he had seen them go down. Instead, there were two long blood streaks leading off into the bush. Carl realized that something had grabbed his kills and had hauled them off to eat them. And just as he had this moment of clarity, he heard a noise coming from the bush. Carl fired a shot into the air to frighten away whatever had just dragged off a big-ass warthog corpse, but rather than scare the predator,

it emboldened it. And an 80-pound leopard burst from the undergrowth and leaped upon Carl. Carl dropped his rifle and was able to raise his arm in time to protect his throat, but his hand was now firmly locked in the jaws of the leopard, which is also attempting to eviscerate Carl with its back claws. Carl struggled to free his hand, but every time he pulled away, the leopard just bit down harder. So Carl stopped trying to pull his hand out, and he began to punch the leopard in its own

goddamn throat from the cleanest bone hole in my whole poor life. The leopard let go and then Carl picked up the 80 pound flailing screeching helby, slammed it against the ground, then leapt upon it and choked it to try and pictures are get the fuck out. Absolutely not. None of that. None of that. This is almost word for word. The same story I've heard from like 20 different drunk Irish guys at the end of my bar. Same story. If you substitute Africa for Denny's parking lot and leopard for an ethnic slur. It's fucking I did. That's the story. After the lepreth was dead, he pulled off the mask and it was Ray Mysterio senior down there.

All right, all right, fine. If this fighting a leopard to death, isn't it? Clearly it's not. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Muffin that morning. Yeah. I'll peel the ways to get the leopard back to school. All right. Naturally that he picked up the dead leopard, walked back to camp with him. And that fucking thing is taxidermied and has become a museum exhibit on another occasion. Kara was on expedition in Kenya when one of his porters alert him that the biggest elephant the porter had ever seen was around. So they decided to track this elephant for a while and see if they can kill it. when one of his porters alerted him that the biggest elephant the porter had ever seen was around.

So they decided to track this elephant for a while and see if they can kill it. So when all the other elephants are dead, we can look at one of them that we killed and say, hey, that was an elephant. We probably shouldn't have killed all those. Yeah. Anyway, these guys are out tracking this elephant

and they think they've lost track of it. When all of a sudden it explodes into view and it charges. Carl is able to get out of the way quickly enough and the elephant waxed him in the face with its giant elephant nose penis. That's amazing. They use the nose to whip you. That's part of their arsenal.

Punched him. Yeah, awesome. Punched him like clothesline. At burst open, Carl's his face broke his nose and threw him to the ground. Carl stood back up just in time to see the elephant charging again, head down and tusks forward.

So Carl kind of jukes a bit, grabs one of the tusks and slips his body between them to avoid getting scared. Sure he do. The elephant unable to just shishkabob Carl, then mashed its enormous head into the ground with Carl pinned between his legs. Fantastic. Gritting so hard for this elephant. Immediately, Carl's lung was punctured by one of the six ribs that broke upon impact.

The elephant then got up and chased a few other guys around for a bit and then ran off triumphantly not dead. I just love that Carl thinks he quote, juke did, right? Absolutely. Like this elephant charged in being like repost Ruins like Oh Juke my fencing moves. I guess I

Basic head slam now flash got to the elephant walking away. That was for you leppy I'm a stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man.

Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man.

Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid. Stupid man. Stupid. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid man. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid man. It's what he would have wanted. Local customs in the area forbid the locals from touching a corpse. So they lit a fire nearby and they just went on their merry way. They just unaware of all their dead people everywhere. They just

thrown them out. Like they're just littered with dead people no matter what. So we can't touch that. No, we're not allowed. We a new house. Yeah. Makes the experience of visiting Peepaw's grave a lot. So Carl wasn't dead though he was severely and gravely wounded. Carl lay on his back for five hours in the rain alone with a punctured lung and six broken ribs until he regained consciousness and dragged himself back to camp. His wife nursed him to health for three months before he was able to walk again. Elephant come back six hours later with a bag of straw under one arm and a carve sign that

says, thought he could juke me LOL under the other one. He's looking around. Fuck, because like, did I get to stuff this t-shirt for nothing? That's you a leopard took it, mother. Fuck it. I do this acme elephant gun. Good luck next time. There you go.

On a trip to Uganda, Carl was hunting crocodiles, and he shot a huge one nearby a river. So Carl and his porter started sweeping across the river to retrieve the dead beast when the porter was attacked, killed, and eaten by a crocodile. Just a few yards from where Carl was himself swimming. Now, Carl made it across, which is fine, except now he was alone and across a river full of hungry dinosaurs that didn't get their memos 65 million years. So, Carl did the only thing he could think of, he pushed the crocodile that he had just shot into the river, climbed aboard its corpse, and headled a dead crocodile across the river full of very much alive crocodiles to get himself to the other side.

He's wearing the crocodile like one of those lion heads. He's spursing my ass. I love it. Crocodile stuff, right? You said you're gonna have to do this. Just me and you, same. On another occasion, he was charged by, and I love this, three different rhinos, each coming at him from three different directions.

Now, I don't know if you've ever seen a rhino up close and not like 70 yards away at the zoo while it's lying down, but these things are so much more massive and powerful than I ever properly understood. In fact, guys, I'm going to share with you now a video of a rhino throwing a car around like it's playing ring toss. So you can really appreciate this next part. Dude, his video is pretty amazing. So you know that video of the cat very slowly pushing a bowl to the very edge of the counter.

Like an asshole. It's like the opposite of that. Plus like 5,000 pounds plus meth. It's rough. All right, so all I'm saying is if Carl leaps in the air and the three rhinos all butt heads This is my favorite essay We we should put the video in the show notes But my favorite part of the video is if the end it's like for the news and they're like nobody knows what made the rhino angry

Like if the trainer had been like fucking That's why he wrecked the car because the chair's fine. Fuck you right now. A car slept with my wife. When asked about the incident, we're in three rhinos, all charge Carl at the same time from three directions.

Carl was said to have blown the whole thing off as not much to get excited about. Since, quote, their eyesight was terrible. And for them, it's all about the charging and less about achieving the kill. There you go. Carl traveled, they don't say how we got out of it. Just that there's the air. He left in the air. He's like, he was a headbunking thing like he was getting three stoogees. He lied about getting chased by three right up to one. So that's really good. We probably do.

Yeah. Yeah. Carl traveled extensively for 30 years, collecting specimens to preserve. He rarely slept more than four hours a night and frequently had a fight off malaria and dysentery as he worked. Okay, but that's true of Eli and he's a podcast. That's true.

That's fair. Not content only to revolutionize the field of taxidermy, Carl also invented a portable video camera called the Acle Motion Picture Camera, which he used to document animals in the wild to better recreate them in his museum settings. The Acle Motion Picture Camera became a widely used tool in Hollywood. In all he has 30 patents to his name, including a cement gun, an early version of shot creed, which is still used today. He built the video camera because no one believe his story that he ate a can of spinach, punched a tiger, if he flew out of his skin, and that led to perfectly taxid on the corpse

landed right next to the firepunks like a white bear. While working in the mountains of the Congo, Carl discovered an entirely new species of mountain gorilla. Of course, he shot an entirely new species of mountain gorilla. Of course, he shot and preserved a couple of them. By giddy. And this display is considered to be the most impressive museum exhibit he's worked on. But this also represented a turning point for Karl. He began to realize that it was not necessary to kill the animals he so loved or to preserve

and protect them. So, the revelation he came about, largely because of the advances in photography, which allowed for nature to be preserved and shared with rather a lot less bloodshed. Carl then turned his attention to the preservation of the mountain gorilla, convincing the king of Belgium to establish the first national park in Africa to protect the mountain gorilla and very likely saving them from extinction. That's cool. I feel like zoos exist is the kind of revelation you have before you fistfight an elephant. But then again, my first thought when I run out of paint, isn't my own.

Oh, and Carl was also buddy buddy with Teddy Roosevelt, who he went on expeditions with. So after he successfully convinced the king of Belgium to establish the first national park of Africa, he was also instrumental in persuading Roosevelt to establish America's national park system. There was a 0% chance this guy wasn't buddies with Teddy Roosevelt. The taxidermy work of Carl Ackley is still on display today. At the Field Museum in Chicago, many of the impressive diorama throughout are the result of Carl's efforts, though by far the most famous is the enormous diorama of two bull elephants

engaged in combat. I've seen this, Walt of Field Museum, and it is honestly, it is genuinely incredible. Other displays of Carl's are still very much viewable in New York at the American Museum of Natural History. In 1926, Carl, on his final expedition to view and not kill, his beloved mountain gorillas caught a fever and dysentery, and he died at the age of 62. He was buried on the mountain right where he fell

in the Congo, among the gorillas he cherished and saved. Oh, and if you had to summarize what you've learned in one sentence, Tom, what would it be? That museum exhibit curator was a much more badass position in the museum. Right? I am. I am. Let's do it. All right, Tom, which of the following is the best name for Carl Ackley's human versus animal cage fighting

Promotes Right So good so good Hobokai Odie That's it See the zoom in T by Zuf seen that's a double. Ah, ah, is the art of stuffing and saving animals for later. Which of the following is the real similar art? A, preservation of Jesus by drying him in the sun or taxidermy.

An archive of smooth jazz, hold music, alto, taxidermy, C, inherent inheriting and preserving all the shit that was in your grandmother's Curio cabinet, Nick Nexidermy, or D. Keeping all your boy band records in pristine condition, backstreet's back, Sidermy. Oh, what do you know that? Oh, backstreet's back. All right. I think you're correct. That's right. Hold on.

All right. So, okay, I have one for your time. When they make the movie about Carl Ackley's life, what should they call it? A, the right stuffed. That's so great. Thank you. That's so good. B, car kiss of the day. Oh.

See memoirs, attacks, a thermy. I've didn't know. I've done it. I've done it. That's our last thing. I did it. Oh, it's a sand. Yeah, that's a sand.

That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. That's a sand. of anybody. I'll be broke back mounting. He literally nobody should ever have to go after

Heath and Cecil. Well, the the honest answer, of course, is E. Nobody should ever have to after he's. I'm sorry, time it was actually A, the right stuff because I'm perfectly capable of going because mine Good I Stuff look at that stuff. It's perfect. It is really good All right. Well, no, I used stump Tom. So you are this week's winner. All right, so I would like heath to do the next essay All right, well, Tom Noah Cecil and heath I'm Eli boss. Thank you for hanging out with us Oh, right. Well, for Tom Noah, Cecil, and Heath, I'm Eli Bosnick, thank you for hanging out with us today.

We'll be back tonight. We'll be back tonight. We'll be back tonight. And by then, Heath and Wright will be an expert on something else. To be now, then, you can listen to Heath, Noah, and myself from using these play dungeons of dragons and make fun of your grandma on our other shows. God off a movie's D&D minus the scathing atheist

and the scrapicac. And the skeptic. You got that? Or you can listen to Tom and Cecil make fun of a movie's D&D-minus, The Skaving Atheist, and The Scraftic Act. And The Sceptic Act? Or you can listen to Tom and Cecil make fun of a movie about the way your grandma plays Dungeons & Dragons over on their show, Pogman and Disnits. And if you'd like to help keep this show going, you can make a PURP episode donation at patreon.com-sytationpot. Or leave us a five star review everywhere you can. And if you'd like to get in touch with us, check out past episodes, connect with us on social media, or check the show notes, be sure to check out citationpod.com.

Dearest Carol, though the March of Time comes for us all, there is but one way to rage against the dying of that light, and that is to take the power over life and death into your own hands. And no, what it means is just happy birthday is fine. Carl, other people need to sign the card. Just leave space.