He always traveled with an American flag. When he lost one, he had native helpers - a Pygmy boy of 13 in Africa or a laborer named Old Moon in China - make a new one. On the Yangtze, he wrote: "I doubted if ever before in the history of the Empire had a native gunboat passed these gorges and rapids flying the Stars and Stripes."
Wherever he went, he delighted natives with his aluminum Blickensderfer portable typewriter and carbon paper.
And his shoes.
"The size amazed them," wrote the 6-foot-2 Geil during a 1904 stop in China. "The heavy leather soles, the laces, everything, and of course the cost, were discussed."
Upon his return to Doylestown from the Great Wall in 1909, The Inquirer noted the "satisfaction that a Pennsylvanian has brought so much light to bear upon a dark spot on the map."
The silence of Geil's widow following his death also may have contributed to the cooling of his celebrity.
Daughter of a Sun Oil Co. founder, Constance was with Geil in Venice when he died of influenza. Rather than nourish his legacy, the bereaved widow sealed off his library in their 30-room Doylestown mansion and rarely spoke of him.
With the contents of that room revealed, the Doylestown Historical Society hopes to rescue Geil from obscurity.
Ed Ludwig, its president, said the goal was to elevate him to the status of Doylestown's other "greats": archaeologist and collector Henry Chapman Mercer, anthropologist Margaret Mead, author James Michener, and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein 2d.
"His legacy has not rivaled theirs," Ludwig said, "but his accomplishments as an explorer and an evangelist are almost beyond belief."
"Dr. William Edgar Geil (1865-1925): Doylestown's Evangelical World Explorer"
Where: Doylestown Historical Society, 56 S. Main St., Doylestown; 215-345-9430
Hours: Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays noon to 4 p.m., or by appointment.
Admission: Free. Donations welcome.
Contact staff writer Jennifer Lin at 215-854-5659 or jlin@phillynews.com.
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