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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
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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.
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