For as much as I have enjoyed preparing for the Yogyakarta Graffiti Website, I am unfortunately required to place that project on hold for a few months. I have been given the opportunity to create a site as part of my internship at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum’s Asian Cultural History Program (ACHP) for a collection this program has possessed for over twenty years unpublished. Besides paying the bills, this upcoming project will be a very interesting one to those readers interested in early 20th Century East African & Southeast Asian History.
The new project revolves around the travels, observations and exploitations for Dr. William Louis Abbott. Upon Dr. Abbott’s graduation from Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1885, he commenced a near 30-year journey (AD 1887-1916) through both Africa & Asia. Spending the majority of his time in Southeast Asia. Abbott was born wealthy and died wealthy. From what I have encountered in the literature he never needed to work and was a restless, bored young man. Once he finished medical school he describes a need to escape America and more importantly the city-lifestyle. Abbott’s initial purpose when traveling to Africa was exclusively hunting-related. Most of his letters during this initial period of exploration involve tales of daring hunts and near-death experiences. While these letters make for entertaining reading, they hold little value for Biology (the field he eventually contributed the most by the end of his exploration).
I might as well say it now. Abbott was a racist, at least by our standards. What I find fascinating from his letters are the changes to his attitudes towards native populations he encounters. At one point he actually goes to war against French Imperialists attempting to conquer Madagascar. The resistance army is lead by n army completely comprised of local populations. However he eventually resigns in disgust as he finds the native leadership to be incompetent, and spews more than a couple racist terms out to make his point. For those attempting to define or understand Abbott may find a dichotomist approach the most useful. A few examples besides the above example:
1) Abbott is extremely patriotic. He loves America. His entire life eventually revolves around collecting for the Smithsonian. He rarely kept any of his collections. Yet he refuses to live in the States. He grows restless, only staying for a year at the most before once again traveling abroad.
2) Abbott cannot stay in one place for long. Many times he attempts to settle down, and “grow fat” as he was fond of saying. At one point he built a home right at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, planning on growing crops and hunting for Rhino. Yet within four months he grew tired of that lifestyle and moved onto Madagascar. He performs this ritual many times in the future.
3) Abbott’s desire to contribute to Science, specifically Biology. He would meticulously and painfully measure and categorize specimens he encountered, but was reluctant to publish.
Abbott eventually became a very successful collector of biological specimens (many of which had yet to be identified in Western Scientific canons) and of cultural artifacts (from a Social Darwinist paradigm and methodology). The Smithsonian also possess about 3000 photos taken by Abbott. This is where Abbott’s true value lays. If we can get past his questionable philosophies towards native populations, his contributions to biology were immeasurable.
Abbott did not keep a diary that we know of, rather personal letters sent to his mother and sister constitutes the majority of the historical literature of his travels. These letters provide a more personal and presumably truthful account from Abbott. I do not argue that he wouldn’t lie or exaggerate to his family, there are many instances in the letters where he seems to be masking unseemly activities, but I find the fact that Abbott never published any of his findings to be of significance in determining his character. He took extensive notes on his collections, but preferred to pass on this data to F. W. True, Head Curator for the Department of Mammals at the Smithsonian, for interpretation instead of publishing the results himself. Before these letters, which were donated by Abbott’s sister Gertrude after Abbott’s death, we only had second-hand accounts of Abbott’s life. It doesn’t appear that Abbott was a fame-seeker, in fact his continual travels and seclusion appears to argue just the opposite. I don’t wish to give too much information at this point. Enjoy!
Further resources for curious readers:
Thomas Stevens. Scouting for Stanley in East Africa.
Available for free on Google books:
Brief Smithsonian Description
http://siarchives.si.edu/findingaids/FARU7117.htm
Obituary Located in Jstor
http://www.jstor.org/view/00222372/ap050068/05a00230/0
Taylor, Paul Michael. The Indonesian Collections Of William Louis Abbott (1860-1936): Invitation To A Research Resource At The Smithsonian Institution.
http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1525/mua.1985.9.2.5
Many other articles by Taylor on the subject.
