Name William Geil | Role Author | |
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Died April 11, 1925, Venice, Italy Books Eighteen Capitals of China, The Isle that is Called Patmos | ||
William Edgar Geil (1 October 1865, Doylestown, Pennsylvania – 11 April 1925, Venice) was an unordained evangelist, Baptist missionary, explorer, lecturer, photographer and author of 10 books related to his travels. He is believed to be the first person to have travelled the entire length of the 2,500 kilometer-long Ming section of the Great Wall of China.
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Biography
Geil graduated from Doylestown Seminary and Lafayette College. Travelling widely to examine the state of Christian missions, Geil became interested in travel for its own sake. He visited the Five Sacred Mountains of China, about which he wrote in The Sacred 5 of China. Geil then went on a journey along the entire length of the Great Wall of China. He came to be considered an expert in Chinese culture and religion. He went on a four-year exploration of the land of the pygmies in central Africa. He lectured all over the world, illustrating his talks with lantern slides. He visited cannibal tribes in New Guinea. In 1912 he married Constance Emerson (1873–1959), a relative of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The couple lived in a mansion in Doylestown, until 1919 when Geil made travelled to China. After William Geil's death, Constance Emerson Geil adopted a child. The Doylestown History Society has 21 boxes of photographs and memorabilia, which were sold by the descendants of the Geil family to a bibliophile, Walter Raymond Gustafson, whose descendants donated the materials.