author
C. V. A. (Charles Victor Alexander) Peel
1869–1931
An Edwardian travel writer with a taste for adventure, he turned hunting journeys across Africa, the Arctic, Asia, and North America into vivid books and articles. His work also reflects the attitudes of its era, making him a revealing if complicated figure today.
1 Audiobook
The zoological gardens of Europe, their history and chief features
by C. V. A. (Charles Victor Alexander) Peel
About the author
Born in 1869, this British author was educated at Eton and became known for writing about expeditions and big-game hunting. Sources describe him traveling widely, including in Kenya, Uganda, Australia, South America, China, the Malay Archipelago, the Arctic, Assam, North America, and Scotland, and publishing accounts of those journeys for the press as well as in book form.
Among the works linked to him are Somaliland (1899/1900), The Zoological Gardens of Europe (1903), The Polar Bear Hunt (1928), and the novel The Ideal Island: A Romance (1927). He also assembled a private Museum of Natural History and Anthropology in Oxford to display specimens from his travels.
Today, Peel is remembered both as a prolific adventure writer and as a representative of an older collecting culture that museums now view much more critically. Material from his collection later went to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, and records note that further items were deposited there after his death in 1931.