ATTILIO GATTI – AFRICAN ADVENTURER

Background Thissingle-frameexhibitchroniclestheadventuresofAttilioGatti,anItaliancavalryofficer,whodevelopedaloveforAfricanexploration.Beginningin1924,heleadaseriesofthirteenexpeditionstotheDarkContinent.Accordingtopromotionalliteratureofoneoftheexpeditions,theseexperiences“madeAttilioGattitodayoneofthegreatestlivingAfricanexplorers,aleadingauthorityonthetopographyandwildlife—bothhumanandanimal—ofAfrica.”

Importance Thisexhibitisthefirsttochroniclethephilatelicaspectsofthe9th

through13thGattiAfricanexpeditions(theonlyGattiexpeditionsforwhichmailisknown).Gatti’shistoricalimportanceismulti-faceted:

• Gattiextensivelyusedthemailasamethodofpromotion.Promotionalpostcardsandlettersweremailedfromtheexpeditions.

• Heemployedspecialexpeditioncancelsandsometimescachetsontheexpedition’smail.

• Hewasamasterofself-promotion,withnumerousadvertisingtie-inswithcorporations.

• Hewasaprolificauthorofbooksandmagazinearticlesabouthisexpeditions.

ExhibitHighlights

1. Theonlyrecordedcoverfromthe9thGattiAfricaExpeditiontotheBelgianCongo,the“GattiZoologicalExpedition”of1936.

2. Apostcardfromamemberofthe10thExpeditiontotheBelgianCongoandRuandaUrundiin1939toafriendathome.

3. AregisteredcovercontainingaFlexograph(arecordeddictationonaflexibledisk)fromGattiduringthe11thExpeditiontoEastAfricain1948,mostlikelycontainingmaterialforabook.Alsoaham-radioQSLcardfromtheexpeditioninUganda(only233sent).

DifficultyofAcquisition

Thisexhibitistheculminationof30yearsofsearchingformaterialfromtheGattiexpeditions.Becausetheexpeditionmailwasusedascommercialpromotion(andnotforphilatelists),itisnotclearhowmuchexpeditionmailsurvives.Includedintheexhibitispersonalcommunicationfromexpeditionmembers–muchmoredifficulttofindthanthestandardpromotionalmail.

Research AnextensivephilatelicstoryofAttilioGattiisfoundin:

“AttilioGatti,AfricanAdventurer”,RegisHoffman.TheAmericanPhilatelist.January2016.

http://stamps.org/userfiles/file/AP/feature/Feature_01_16.pdf