Both Geil and Lindesay had traversed the same Great Wall route - the best-known Ming Wall section - that starts in the northeastern coastal city of Shanhaiguan and ends in the western desert in Jiayuguan.
Lindesay made his trek in 1987, but learned of Geil's journey and his 1909 best-seller, The Great Wall of China, only years later. Intrigued by their parallel lives, Lindesay set out to re-photograph Geil's images.
Last summer, Lindesay went to Doylestown to see the Geil collection for himself.
There were thousands of newspaper clippings, maps, letters, and receipts, including one from a Shanghai tailor for two tweed jackets and silk pajamas.
There were pocket-size notebooks, with jottings of dates and places, and reminders to send photos to hosts.
There was a traveling kit with a handmade American flag, a pocket watch, and eyeglasses, and tin containers including ones marked "North China" and "Corea."
Lindesay borrowed items for an exhibit to mark the 100th anniversary of Geil's Great Wall trek, held last October at Beijing's Imperial College. It featured 80 "before and after" photographs by Geil and Lindesay, which were published in The Great Wall Revisited (2008). In some modern images, the Wall has been reduced to rubble; guard towers that Geil once viewed have disappeared.
"His photos preserve, in many places, a Wall that is no longer there," Lindesay said. "He was the father of Great Wall studies."
How was it that an explorer so celebrated in his day could slip from history?
One theory: Unlike his contemporaries, Geil came home with only pictures. He did not loot temples or tombs. He did not leave with armloads of antiquities.
Hence, his name was not immortalized on a museum wing or university collection.
"I like to think of my grandfather as one of the early people who believed you take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints," said the Rev. John Laycock, whose mother was adopted by Geil's childless widow after the explorer's death.
Born on a farm in New Britain Township, Bucks County, in 1865, Geil was a Baptist preacher, motivated by religion to explore the world.
He made six journeys, the longest and farthest being his "Great World-wide Tour" from 1901 to 1904 to investigate foreign missions and preach. In Melbourne, Australia, he spoke before 8,000 people at a revivalist meeting.
Geil financed trips by writing books and giving talks. He did not disappoint. The British Monthly enthused that his "oratory would kindle the dullest imagination."
Photos show Geil wearing a floor-length goat-skin coat next to his palanquin, a chair hoisted by poles on the shoulders of Chinese porters.
And sitting astride a water buffalo in the Philippines.
And firing a rifle in East Africa to summon natives to church.
Of his trip to Fiji, Geil recounted visiting a Christian church on a site where "banquets of human flesh [had been] of constant occurrence." In Congo, he vowed never again to ride the Aruwimi River rapids in a dugout.
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