Editing Carl Akeley (section)

==Career==
[[File:Akeley's muskrats (24092994301).jpg|thumb|left|"Muskrat Group", one of Akeley's early works for the Milwaukee Public Museum]]
Akeley was born to Daniel Webster Akeley and Julia Glidden<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-1300019 |title=Akeley, Carl Ethan |last=Wedge |first=Eleanor F. |website=American National Biography |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1300019 |isbn=978-0-19-860669-7 |access-date=November 13, 2022}}</ref> in [[Clarendon, New York]], and grew up on a farm, attending school for only three years. He learned [[taxidermy]] from [[David Bruce (naturalist)|David Bruce]] in [[Brockport, New York]], and then entered an apprenticeship in taxidermy at [[Henry Augustus Ward|Ward's Natural Science Establishment]] in [[Rochester, New York]]. While at Ward's Akeley also helped mount [[P.T. Barnum]]'s [[Jumbo]] after the latter was killed in a railroad accident.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The autobiography of a taxidermist| author=Akeley, Carl E.|pages=177–195  | url= https://archive.org/details/worldswork41gard/page/176/mode/1up| journal=The World's Work| year=1920 }}</ref>

In 1886 Akeley moved on to the [[Milwaukee Public Museum]] (MPM) in [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]].  Akeley remained in [[Milwaukee]] for six years, refining "model" techniques used in taxidermy.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/inbrightestafric00akel#page/8/mode/2up|title=In brightest Africa|year=1923|publisher=Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, Page & Co.}}</ref> At the [[Milwaukee Public Museum]], his early work consisted of animals found in [[Wisconsin]] prairies and woodlands. One of these was a diorama of a muskrat group, which is sometimes referred to as the first museum diorama; however, such dioramas, and dioramas depicting "habitat groups," dated back well into the early 1800s, and were quite popular with taxidermists in Victorian England.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Lucas|first1=Frederic A.|title=The Story of Museum Groups|journal=American Museum Journal|year=1914|volume=14|issue=1 and 2|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/391746}}</ref> He also created historical reindeer and orangutan exhibits. 
[[File:Chicago Illinois - Elephants - Field Museum.jpg|thumb|"Fighting African Elephants" on display in Stanley Field Hall, The Field Museum, Chicago]]
Akeley left the [[Milwaukee Public Museum]] in 1892 and set up a private studio from which he continued to do contract work, including three mustangs for the [[Smithsonian Institution]] for exhibition at the [[World's Columbian Exposition]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kirk|first1=Jay|title=Kingdom Under Glass|url=https://archive.org/details/kingdomunderglas0000kirk|url-access=registration|date=2010|publisher=Holt|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kingdomunderglas0000kirk/page/60 60–66]|isbn=9780805092820}}</ref> In 1896, he joined the [[Field Museum of Natural History]] in Chicago,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/80239/time-carl-akeley-killed-leopard-his-bare-hands|title=The Time Carl Akeley Killed a Leopard With His Bare Hands|date=May 19, 2016|access-date=October 25, 2017}}</ref> where he developed his innovative taxidermy techniques, notably the creation of lightweight, hollow, but sturdy mannequins on which to mount the animals' skins.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kirk|first=Jay|title=Kingdom Under Glass|date=2010|publisher=Henry Holt|isbn=978-0-8050-9282-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/kingdomunderglas0000kirk}}</ref> His techniques, which involved sculpting the realistic musculature of the animals in active poses before mounting the skin, were also notable for their life-like representation. Akeley was the Field Museum's chief taxidermist from 1896-1909 and prepared more than 130 mounted specimens and dioramas. His most famous creations include the "Fighting African Elephants" in the central hall of the Field Museum, killed by Akeley and his wife [[Delia Akeley]] before being brought to Chicago for mounting and first put on display in 1909.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fieldmuseum.org/about/history/carl-akeley|title=Carl Akeley|website=Field Museum of Natural History|date=November 29, 2011|access-date=April 16, 2020}}</ref>

He was also a prolific inventor, perfecting a "cement gun" to repair the crumbling facade of the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago (the old [[Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)|Palace of Fine Arts]] from the [[World's Columbian Exposition]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Teichert|first=Pietro|title=Carl Akeley—a tribute to the founder of Shotcrete|journal=Shotcrete|date=Summer 2002|pages=10–12|url=http://www.shotcrete.org/media/Archive/2002Sum_Teichert.pdf|access-date=April 13, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129163346/https://www.shotcrete.org/media/Archive/2002Sum_Teichert.pdf|archive-date=January 29, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> He is today known as the inventor of [[shotcrete]], or "gunite" as he termed it at the time.<ref>[http://www.allentownequipment.com/shotcrete.php Allentown Equipment, History of Gunite/Shotcrete] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060207034246/http://www.allentownequipment.com/shotcrete.php |date=February 7, 2006 }} (URL accessed March 25, 2006)</ref> Akeley did not use sprayable concrete in his taxidermy work, as is sometimes suggested.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Dewey|first1=C.L.|title=My Friend 'Ake.'|journal=Nature Magazine|date=December 1927|volume=10|pages=387–91}}</ref> Akeley also invented a highly mobile motion picture camera for capturing wildlife, started a company to manufacture it, and patented it in 1915. The Akeley "pancake" camera (so-called because it was round) was soon adopted by the War Department for use in World War I, primarily for aerial use, and later by newsreel companies, and Hollywood studios, primarily for aerial footage and action scenes.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Alvey|first=Mark|title=The Cinema as Taxidermy: Carl Akeley and the Preservative Obsession|journal=Framework|date=Spring 2007|volume=48|issue=1|pages=23–45|doi=10.1353/frm.2007.0000|s2cid=192181171}}</ref> F. Trubee Davison covered these and other Akeley inventions in a special issue of ''Natural History'' magazine.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Davison|first=F. Trubee|title=Akeley, the inventor|journal=Natural History|date=March–April 1927|volume=XXVII|issue=2|pages=124–129}}</ref> Akeley also wrote several books, including stories for children, and an autobiography ''In Brightest Africa'' (1920). He was awarded more than 30 patents for his inventions.

Akeley specialized in African [[mammals]], particularly the gorilla and the elephant.  As a taxidermist, he improved on techniques of fitting the skin over a carefully prepared and sculpted form of the animal's body, producing very lifelike specimens, with consideration of musculature, wrinkles, and veins.  He also displayed the specimens in groups in a natural setting.  Many animals that he preserved he had personally collected.