During the golden age of safaris in the early twentieth century, one man set out to preserve Africa's great beasts. This epic account tells the adventures of the brooding genius who revolutionized taxidermy and created the famed African Hall we visit today at New York's Museum of Natural History. The Gilded Age was drawing to a close, and with it came the realization that men may have hunted certain species into oblivion. Renowned taxidermist Carl Akeley joined the hunters rushing to Africa, where he risked death time and again as he stalked animals for his dioramas and hobnobbed with outsized personalities of the era such as Theodore Roosevelt. He survived severe hardships and attacks, even killing a leopard with his bare hands after it attacked him at close range. In 1921, eager to learn about gorillas to determine if killing them for museum dioramas was justified, Akeley led an expedition to Mt. Mikeno in the Virunga Mountains at the edge of the then Belgian Congo. At that time, gorillas were quite exotic, with very few even in zoos, and collecting such animals for educational museum exhibitions was not uncommon. In the process of “collecting” several mountain gorillas, Akeley’s attitude was fundamentally changed and for the remainder of his life he worked for the establishment of a gorilla preserve in the Virungas. "In brightest Africa" he tells of his experiences there and especially of his last trip which was undertaken for the purpose of studying the gorilla, securing specimens for the museum, and arranging scenic backgrounds for the gorilla group. The book tells also of his training as a taxidermist and sculptor and its closing chapter describes his conception of a great African hall in the museum "to perpetuate the animal life, the native customs and the scenic beauties of Africa." CONTENTS I. A New Art Begun II. Elephant Friends and Foes III. My Acquaintance with Lions IV. Hunting the African Buffalo V. Leopards and Rhinos VI. Along the Trail VII. Bill VIII. Safari Hunters IX. Inventions and Warfare X. A Taxidermist as a Sculptor XI. Hunting Gorillas in Central Africa XII. Adventures on Mt. Mikeno . XIII. The Lone Male of Karisimbi XIV. Is the Gorilla Almost a Man? XV. Roosevelt African Hall—A Record for the Future