From the Geil Archive (1)—Southern Mountain Museum

Click here for the "From the Geil Archive" Resource Center
To learn more about Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (16 August 2012)—Rural Religion in China-12

Two years ago on Round and Square (16 August 2011)—Displays of Authenticity: Mongolian Barbeque

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Please Note: All photographs marked "DHS" are with permission of the Doylestown Historical Society. All marked "RL" are my own pictures. None of these may not be reused without permission (e-mail me about mine, and I will put you in touch with DHS if you need to contact them). Photographs marked "RF" are "royalty free."

[a] Southern Mountain RL

Click here for other posts in the Round and Square series "From the Geil Archive":

               Introduction                          1-Southern Mountain Museum             2-Sacred Mountain Map           

               3-Hat and Cattle                   4-Seeking Anthropology                       5-Curly Fives
               6-How to Write the Book      7-Mortarboard Man                               8-Orator

O.k., so let's start with the first tidbit from the Geil archives. I never saw this one coming. I had a chance to check out the new visitor's center for tourists coming to the southern sacred mountain 南嶽衡山/南岳衡山 in Hunan Province (the city of Nanyue..."South Peak"). I bought a few newly-published books, and then took the escalator to the second floor, where I discovered the (also new) Southern Mountain Museum. It is not large, and the holdings are, let us say, eclectic. I have no doubt that over the years it will start to "click" as a real draw for visitors. As it is now, there is a display of pilgrimage smocks worn (to this day) by serious, incense towing, visitors to the temples at base and peak. It has a copy of the Comprehensive Mirror, of all history books, there as well.

And then, turning to the last in a line of special glass cases, it stood—William Edgar Geil's book on the five sacred mountains of China. He is still the only Westerner to have written a book on all five mountains as a single idea. It is the Chinese translation of his 1926 book and, whatever one might say about Geil's overall oeuvre, it his by far his best book. 

And it is in a museum half-a-world away from where Geil lived and wrote. It is also (and let us remember this) in one of the places that Geil loved best. 

Geil...under glass.

Click here for other posts in the Round and Square series "From the Geil Archive":

                Introduction                          1-Southern Mountain Museum             2-Sacred Mountain Map           

               3-Hat and Cattle                   4-Seeking Anthropology                       5-Curly Fives
               6-How to Write the Book      7-Mortarboard Man                               8-Orator

[c] Fame RL