James Ricalton archived

The character in the foreground looks thoroughly despicable; who is it?

Hint: Maplewood named a "Square" after him. Lilliputians live there in the winter.

Wow 3 dead hippos with their mouths propped open with sticks and Ricalton himself with a big bore Winchester 45-70 (?) rifle. That is not something that we are apt to see anymore (the hippos that is). Is there a date on this John?

From "The Life of James Ricalton" by his daughter, Kathryn Ricalton Murphy:

"In 1909 at the age of 65 James Ricalton took a trip to Africa and walked from Cape Town to Cairo, a distance of 1500 miles. Wearing out many pairs of shoes and averaging 30 miles a day. He had a safari of 20 natives to carry his baggage and to help him hunt wild game. He shot many elephants, hippopotami, antelopes, and wild buffalos, bringing home a great many trophies to add to his large collection of curios gathered from all his trips around the world....

"In 1912 Mr. Ricalton left for another trip under Thomas Edison's direction, this time to experiment with the famous inventor's moving picture camera. His son Lomond accompanied him and while father and son were in the jungles taking moving pictures of big game Lomond contracted typhoid fever. Mr. Ricalton transported him to the nearest British hospital, 50 miles away, but the trip on rough jungle roads aggravated the boy's condition, and after two weeks in the hospital, despite the best of care, he died and was buried in Nairobi, British East Africa. This tragedy ended Mr. Ricalton's travels...."

http://www.ricalton.org/ricalton_africa.html

Posted By: jasperFrom "The Life of James Ricalton" by his daughter, Kathryn Ricalton Murphy:


"In 1912 Mr. Ricalton left for another trip under Thomas Edison's direction, this time to experiment with the famous inventor's moving picture camera. His son Lomond accompanied him and while father and son were in the jungles taking moving pictures of big game Lomond contracted typhoid fever. Mr. Ricalton transported him to the nearest British hospital, 50 miles away, but the trip on rough jungle roads aggravated the boy's condition, and after two weeks in the hospital, despite the best of care, he died and was buried in Nairobi, British East Africa. This tragedy ended Mr. Ricalton's travels...."

http://www.ricalton.org/ricalton_africa.html

aww thats sad :cry:

He did pay a heavy price for all that trophy hunting he did.

To give the guy some credit, today's teachers could make quite a vocabulary lesson out of this treatise. There were more than a few words I had to look up myself, and I didn't even read the whole thing.

In our world of Twitter twaddle, eventually people will not even be able to follow the more complex form of writing he and those of his day employed.

For anyone who does not have the time to read Ricalton's Address To Parents, (post above, link "treastise") let me summarize it for you: You, dear parent, suck in every way possible and to the most extreme degree.

I'm tempted to post it verbatim in the education section and see what people think.

-John

Wow, two Africa threads going at the same time . . . I'm so excited!

Also, I'm surprised no one has picked up the glaring error in "The Life of James Ricalton" by his daughter, Kathryn Ricalton Murphy: . .. "In 1909 at the age of 65 James Ricalton took a trip to Africa and walked from Cape Town to Cairo, a distance of 1500 miles. ....."

Cape Town to Cairo is virtually the entire African continent and would be a distance of over 4000 miles!

An interesting though lurid photo. This is about the same time Teddy Roosevelt took his Africa hunting trips. Did the Flickr poster indicate who the photographer was?

How can there be a scan of a document dated 1872 and labeled "Maplewood"? We were not Maplewood then.

Jerry:

"When the Morris and Essex Railroad from Newark was extended to the area in 1838, a land speculator by the name of John Shedden built a railroad station in Jefferson Village and named it Maplewood. This name came to comprise areas known as Hilton, Jefferson Village, and areas previously part of Springfield. In 1868, farms were divided into parcels for residential housing"

The above is from Wikipedia and while I don't consider that source the be all and end all it confirms my understanding of how Maplewood became, well, Maplewood.

Here is the cover to the 1872 booklet: http://www.ricalton.org/art/ricaton_school%20address.jpg

Posted By: jasperHe had a safari of 20 natives

Is that like a "pride" of lions or a "murder" of crows?

Posted By: daveAn interesting though lurid photo. This is about the same time Teddy Roosevelt took his Africa hunting trips. Did the Flickr poster indicate who the photographer was?

Here is the link showing the original stereograph and what the poster wrote about it: FLICKR

I have to assume that Ricalton took the picture himself, even though he is in it.

The stereograph is likely out of a collection of Underwood and Underwood stereographs. You would get two books, but one only looked like a book and was full of these stereograph cards. The "real" book would contain the captions for the stereographs. I couldn't find the book on Google Books that would have the original caption. You can read Ricalton's India and China stereograph descriptiosn on Google Book. I saw a set of Ricalton stereographs on ebay some time ago, and it was missing maybe 15 of the 100 stereographs. Sold for over $5000! I have here a book of images from the Russo Japanese War I got on ebay because Ricalton was listed as one of the photographers... but the actual photographer of each picture is rarely noted. That was a more-fair $35

How old was his son when he died? James was 68 in 1912?
He looks like Jed Clampitt in the photo.