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I recently discovered this map of South America, drawn by me at the wee age of 7 in the year 1987, in a little book that i created about my grandfather, while he was away in Brazil.  

With the help of both my and his map collections, photos and letters, I was able to piece together a slightly better understanding of his travels as the Curator of Mammals in the Research Department at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL.

Coordinates are as follows:
1. Excerpts from gazeteer of his book, "Living New World Monkeys."
2. Igarape-Miri
3. Manaus, Brazil: airport and city
4. Manaus: Teatro Amazona
5. Jungle Swamp, Amazon rainforest
6. Popunha fruit and tribe Ipixunas, Amazon rainforest
7. Mystery animal, Paraguay
8. San Juan Nepemuceno, Paraguay
9. Barranquilla, local
10. Barranquilla, region

Above and to the right are images taken from his main research journal, a monstrous hardcover of 1117 densely packed pages about the origin, evolution, dispersal and behavior of all primates, living and extinct.

Interesting footnote: these illustrations were created before the use of computers; my uncle, a teenager at the time, was in charge of adding the scale markers and labels by hand.

This book was the culmination of his many expeditions, which all began as a young adult in the San Marcos region of Texas, collecting blind cave salamanders with help from the Field Museum. During the 30's, the Depression made him unable to afford school, so he set sail on a one-way ticket from NYC to Guayaquil, Ecuador, for $600 on the Grace Line. This was his first experience in South America, where he stayed until 1937, living off the land, and collecting and selling horses on the Peruvian frontier to gain some extra money.

During WWII, he was assigned to the Office Of Strategic Services, working in Paris where he met my grandmother, Anne-Marie, at the Trocadero Metro stop. They were married in Paris and quickly thereafter, moved to South America so he could continue researching for the museum.

I was lucky to receive a stack of letters the two lovers wrote to each other during their separation from 1949-1950, when she raised my mother in a small apartment in Barranquilla as he travelled throughout Brazil.  These helped alot in placing the photos to their locations.

Photos in the map also include a much later expidition in Brazil in 1987. By this time, I was a 7 year old who drew possibly my very first map, the one of South America above.