Carl Ethan Akeley was an inventor, explorer and taxidermist born Clarendon, N.Y.

Early Career

Akeley was educated academically at Brockport Normal School and in the ways of wildlife around his father's farm. He began a career of taxidermy at Ward's Natural Science Establishment in Rochester in 1884. He found himself disgusted with the crude representations of wild life and so was induced to accept a position with the Milwaukee Museum in 1887 through the encouragement of an old associate, William M. Wheeler.

Accomplishments

During the next eight years, he revolutionized the method of displaying museum wildlife exhibits through the technique he developed for mounting specimens against backgrounds of their natural settings. In 1895 he joined the staff of the Field Museum in Chicago and in 1909 the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where he greatly refined his technique. During his quest of material for museum habitat exhibits, he made five scientific expeditions to Africa beginning in 1896.

He was an ardent conservationist and was able to interest the Belgian government in the establishment of a natural game preserve in Africa. Akley invented cement spray gun which was widely employed in World War I and a wildlife motion-picture camera. Akeley also served as optical engineering adviser to the government during the war.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]