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| [a] Big DHS |
To learn more about Geil, click here for the Accidental Ethnographer Resource Center
A year ago on Round and Square (22 August 2012)—The New Yorker and the World: Course Description (a)
Two years ago on Round and Square (22 August 2011)—Middles: The Forest People
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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."
Click here for other posts in the Round and Square series "From the Geil Archive":
3-Hat and Cattle 4-Seeking Anthropology 5-Curly Fives6-How to Write the Book 7-Mortarboard Man 8-Orator
Sometimes I wince when reading in the Geil archive. Here is a man who—for all his tired puns and more than occasional need of an editor—held audiences of many thousands in rapt attention and traveled places almost no one in his time had gone. He had significant insights to share, and boatloads (and donkey carts) of stories to tell. In other words, he had a lot going for him, if he just concentrated on the main event.
And yet...and yet...sometimes William Edgar Geil just seems to be trying too hard.
Today's archival tidbit is an example of that. I look at it and just mutter to myself "Why not just leave well enough alone?...why open yourself to mockery and misunderstanding?" Two things will strike even the casual reader. First, let's consider Geil's continuing use of the appellation he was supposedly given while traveling in Africa. To be sure, Geil was big. On the other hand, the use of the "Big White Chief" in publications all over the English-speaking world could only have come from one source—the traveler himself, with his keen eye for self-promotion. Since I'll have much more to say about the "Big White Chief" business in later posts, let's move on to what I consider the heart of this little pamphlet.
Note well the picture ("c," below). Yes, the account was written by someone other than Geil himself. Consider, though, that the only real source for Geil information beyond newspaper accounts was the Geil promotion machine, and it was a formidable one. What strikes me as unusual, odd, and a little dangerous career-wise, is the over-the-top, even for the early twentieth century, use of cap and gowned note-taking. The picture says "serious...scholar." Or does it? It's always tricky to interpret these matters 110 years later, but, even with temporal and cultural adjustments (I do this for a living, after all), I wince.
Or maybe it's the "fact" that the circumstances surrounding Geil's graduation from Lafayette College (and even legitimate questions as to its reality) followed Geil throughout his career. We'll return to some of these questions as we proceed, but it's hard to beat this laudatory article for sheer chutzpah.
6-How to Write the Book 7-Mortarboard Man 8-Orator
And yet...and yet...sometimes William Edgar Geil just seems to be trying too hard.
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| [b] Lecturing DHS |
Note well the picture ("c," below). Yes, the account was written by someone other than Geil himself. Consider, though, that the only real source for Geil information beyond newspaper accounts was the Geil promotion machine, and it was a formidable one. What strikes me as unusual, odd, and a little dangerous career-wise, is the over-the-top, even for the early twentieth century, use of cap and gowned note-taking. The picture says "serious...scholar." Or does it? It's always tricky to interpret these matters 110 years later, but, even with temporal and cultural adjustments (I do this for a living, after all), I wince.
Or maybe it's the "fact" that the circumstances surrounding Geil's graduation from Lafayette College (and even legitimate questions as to its reality) followed Geil throughout his career. We'll return to some of these questions as we proceed, but it's hard to beat this laudatory article for sheer chutzpah.
Click here for other posts in the Round and Square series "From the Geil Archive":
3-Hat and Cattle 4-Seeking Anthropology 5-Curly Fives6-How to Write the Book 7-Mortarboard Man 8-Orator
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| [c] Lafayette College DHS |
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