Tarzan's 1893-1894 U.S. Visit Timeline

Tarzan's 1893-94 U.S. Visit Timeline

(Unauthorized 1872 Tarzan Chronology)

Date:  May 16, 1861

Event:  Herman Webster Mudgett, aka, Dr. Henry Howard was born in Gilmanton, NH.

Source:  Based on true life events. 

Date: around 1892

Event:  Michigan Military Cadet Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, posed with an unknown woman.

Source: Family photo.

1892 ERB

Date;  August 1886

Event:  Herman Webster Mudgett, aka, Dr. Henry Howard arrived in Chicago, Illinois.

Source:  Based on true life events.

Date;  August 1886

Event:  Herman Webster Mudgett, aka, Dr. Henry Howard started work at Elizabeth S. Holton's drugstore at the northwest corner of South Wallace Avenue and West 63rd Street in Englewood. He eventually buys the business.

Source:  Based on true life events.

Date:  early March 17, 1893

Event: The Arrow sets sail with the French warship.

Source:  "Six days later Captain Dufranne announced that they would sail early on the morrow."  ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

The Arrow

Date:  March 17, 1893

Event:  Tarzan began speaking little sentences in French.

Source:  "He was a most eager student, and in two more days had mastered so much French that he could speak little sentences such as; "That is a tree," "this is grass," "I am hungry," and the like, but D'Arnot found that it was difficult to teach him the French construction upon a foundation of English." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Zdenek Burian

Date:  March 17, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot set out for the cabin.

Source:  "On the third day after the fever broke Tarzan wrote a message asking D'Arnot if he felt strong enough to be carried back to the cabin." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:    mid-afternoon March 17, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot arrive at the cabin to discover everyone is gone.

Source:  "Mid-afternoon brought them to the clearing, and as Tarzan dropped to earth from the branches of the last tree his heart leaped and bounded against his ribs in anticipation of seeing Jane so soon again." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  dusk March 17, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot accidentally shoots Tarzan.

Source:  "Dusk was falling, and the interior of the cabin was very dark, but the man could see the latch moving from its place." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Joe Kubert

Date:  March 24, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot spend a week at the cabin.

Source:  "For a week they did little but rest, D'Arnot coaching Tarzan in French." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  March 25, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot leave the cabin in search of whites.

Source:  "So on the following day they started north along the shore." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  April 8, 1893

Event:  Tarzan tells D'Arnot about finding and moving the Porter treasure chest, and about his father's diary.

Source:  "Go back?" exclaimed D'Arnot. "But my dear fellow, we have been three weeks upon the march." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. It is also important to note the age of the diary itself. "Then he proceeded to read the diary that had been written over twenty years before." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Harold Foster

Date:  April 15, 1893

Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot walk the coastline in search of whites. Eventually, they happened upon a French mission.

Source:  "For a month they traveled north," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "A week later the two men came suddenly upon a clearing in the forest." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Zdenek Burian

Date:  April 22, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot spend a week resting at the mission.
Source:  "For a week they remained there," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

1893 Central African Republic

Date:  May 22, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot reach a small river town.

Source:  "Another month brought them to a little group of buildings at the mouth of a wide river," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "Gradually he became accustomed to the strange noises and the odd ways of civilization so that none might know that two short months before, this handsome Frenchman in immaculate white ducks, who laughed and chatted with the gayest of them, had been swinging naked through primeval forests to pounce upon some unwary victim, which, raw was to fill his savage belly." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Matadi, Congo River

Date:  June 22, 1893

Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot spend a month at the river town waiting for funds.

Source:  "He had also cabled his bankers for funds, and the enforced wait of a month, under which both chafed, was due to their inability to charter a vessel for the return to Tarzan's jungle after the treasure." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Matadi, Congo River

Date:  morning June 23, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot rent a boat and return for the Porter treasure.

Source:  "Shortly after the episode of the lion hunt, D'Arnot succeeded in chartering an ancient tub for the coastwise trip to Tarzan's land-locked harbor." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  morning June 24, 1893
Event:  The rented tub dropped anchor at the cabin's harbor.

Source:  "The trip to the beach was uneventful, and the morning after they dropped anchor before the cabin," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  late in the evening of June 25, 1893
Event:  Tarzan returns with the treasure.

Source:  "Late the next day he returned, bearing the great chest upon his shoulder." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes..

Date:  sunrise June 26, 1893
Event:  The rented tub returns to the river town.

Source:  "and at sunrise the little vessel worked through the harbor's mouth and took up her northward journey." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Matadi, Congo River

Date:  June through July 17, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot and Tarzan remain in the river town.

Source:  "Three weeks later Tarzan and D'Arnot were passengers on board a French steamer bound for Lyons." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Matadi, Congo River

Date:  July 17, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot and Tarzan sail for Lyons, France.

Source:  "Three weeks later Tarzan and D'Arnot were passengers on board a French steamer bound for Lyons, France." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Lyon, France

Date:  July 17, 1893
Event:  William Clayton and Mr. Philander go to Wisconsin.

Source:  When Jane arrives in Northern Wisconsin it is stated, "The farmhouse, which stood on a little elevation some hundred yards from the tenant house, had undergone a complete transformation during the three weeks that Clayton and Mr. Philander had been there." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  July 23, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot arrive in Lyons, France.

Source:  Phil Farmer in Tarzan Alive credits the two's voyage as taking a total of five days in 1909. I do not have the means to research the ship's traveling time so I will depend on Farmer's research. One thing to keep in mind is that Phil's research is based on 1909 travel time, whereas this study is based on 1893. Since my 1872 chronology shows this travel occurring sixteen years earlier, I have added an extra day to Phil's to cover any extra length of time due to technological advances.

  

Lyons, France

Date:  July 23 through July 27, 1893
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot spend a few days in Lyons.

Source:  "and after a few days in that city D'Arnot took Tarzan to Paris." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Marquerite Portier

Date:  July 29, 1893, through August 5, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot and Tarzan in Paris.

Source:  ERB says, "One of the first things D'Arnot accomplished after their arrival was to arrange to visit a high official of the police department." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. At that meeting, D'Arnot states, "I had hoped to know at once. Monsieur Tarzan sails for America tomorrow." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. Note that no mention of time is given between the fingerprinting appointment being made and the actual fingerprinting taking place. We do know it was not immediate because of statements made in The Return Of Tarzan.

     In chapter one ERB writes, "They reminded Tarzan of melodramatic villains he had seen at the theaters in Paris." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. In chapter three ERB states, "Tarzan spent the two following weeks renewing his former brief acquaintance with Paris." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

     From this information, it is quite clear Tarzan spent at least a little time in Paris. We know for a fact that the jungle lord at least had enough time for more than one theater visit and had some time to go out on the town sightseeing. My personal research indicates the Paris visit to last shortly over a week.

     We also know that D'Arnot and Tarzan had the Porter treasure appraised. "The treasure was most carefully appraised by experts, but lest there should be any question in your mind, D'Arnot himself bought it and is holding it for you, should you prefer the treasure to the credit." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

1893 Eiffel Tower

Date:  August 4, 1893, Friday

Event:  Robert Canler speaks to Professor Porter about marrying Jane.

Source:  "There is young Clayton you know," suggested Canler. "He has been hanging around for months." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. Jane at this time also made a statement that helps establish a time perspective. "I want you to be sure papa, to indicate all that you can do without until fall." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. In North America fall is between September 23 through December 22, Therefore, we know this conversation must occur before or after those dates.

Date:  August 5, 1893

Event:  Tarzan was fingerprinted.

Source:  "One of the first things which D'Arnot accomplished after their arrival was to arrange to visit a high official of the police department." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "You forget that for twenty years the dead body of the child who made these fingerprints lay in the cabin of his father, and that all my life I have seen it laying there," said Tarzan bitterly. ERB-Tarzan Of the Apes.

Harold Foster

Date:  August 6, 1893

Event;  Tarzan sales for America.

Source:  "I had hoped to know at once," said D'Arnot. "Monsieur Tarzan sails for America tomorrow," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

1893 Paris

Date:  July 17, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot and Tarzan sail for Lyons, France.

Source:  "Three weeks later Tarzan and D'Arnot were passengers on board a French steamer bound for Lyons," ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  July 17, 1893
Event:  William Clayton and Mr. Philander go to Wisconsin.

Source:  When Jane arrives in Wisconsin it is stated, "The farmhouse, which stood on a little elevation some hundred yards from the tenant house, had undergone a complete transformation during the three weeks that Clayton and Mr. Philander had been there." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  July 23, 1893, Sunday

Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot arrive in Lyons, France.

Source:  Phil Farmer, in Tarzan Alive, credits the two's voyage as taking a total of five days in 1909. I do not have the means to research the ship's traveling time, so I will depend on Farmer's research. One thing to keep in mind is that Phil's research is based on 1909 travel time, whereas my 1872 chronology is based on 1893. Since my 1872 chronology shows this travel occurring sixteen years earlier, I have added an extra day to Phil's, to cover any extra length of time due to technological advances.

Date:  July 23 through July 27, 1893 
Event:  Tarzan and D'Arnot spend a few days in Lyons.

Source:  "and after a few days in that city D'Arnot took Tarzan to Paris." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  July 29 through August 5, 1893
Event:  D'Arnot and Tarzan in Paris.

Source:  Burroughs says, "One of the first things which D'Arnot accomplished after their arrival was to arrange to visit a high official of the police department." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. At that meeting, D'Arnot states, "I had hoped to know at once. Monsieur Tarzan sails for America tomorrow." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. From this information, we learn Tarzan definitely sails for America the day after the fingerprinting. Note that no mention of time is given between the fingerprinting appointment and the actual fingerprinting taking place. We do know it was not immediate, because of statements made in The Return Of Tarzan. In chapter 1 Burroughs writes, "They reminded Tarzan of melodramatic villains he had seen at the theaters in Paris." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. In chapter 3 Burroughs states, "Tarzan spent the two following weeks renewing his former brief acquaintance with Paris." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan. From this information, it is quite clear Tarzan spent at least a little time in Paris. We know for a fact that the jungle lord at least had enough time for more than one theater visit, and had some time to go out on the town sightseeing. My personal research indicates the Paris visit to last shortly over a week. We also know that D'Arnot and Tarzan had the Porter treasure appraised. "The treasure was most carefully appraised by experts, but lest there should be any question in your mind, D'Arnot himself bought it and is holding it for you, should you prefer the treasure to the credit." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  August 4, 1893, Friday
Event:  Robert Canler speaks to Professor Porter about marrying Jane.

Source:  "There is young Clayton, you know," suggested Canler. "He has been hanging about for months." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. Jane at this time also makes a statement that helps establish a time perspective. "I want you to be sure, papa, to indicate all that you can do without until fall." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. In North America, fall is between September 23 and December 22. Therefore, we know this conversation must occur before, or after those dates.

Date:  August 5, 1893
Event:  Tarzan was fingerprinted.

Source:  "One of the first things which D'Arnot accomplished after their arrival was to arrange to visit a high official of the police department." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "You forget that for twenty years the dead body of the child who made those fingerprints lay in the cabin of his father, and that all my life I have seen it lying there," said Tarzan bitterly. ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  August 6, 1893
Event:  Tarzan sails for America.

Source:  "I had hoped to know at once," said D'Arnot. "Monsieur Tarzan sails for America tomorrow."  ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  August 7, 1893
Event:  The Porter party go by train to northern Wisconsin.

Source:  "She is planning on our going up there the first of the week." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  August 14, 1893
Event:  Robert Canler arrives in Wisconsin.

Source:  "a week later, Robert Canler drew up before the farmhouse in his purring six-cylinder." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. It is important to note that the first car with a six-cylinder, according to the History Of Cars, was a Napier. They were produced in London and Boston from 1906 through 1909.  Therefore, in an 1872 chronology the modern car, as described by Burroughs, could not exist. It is very possible, however, that Canler could have driven a car. In this early time, steam and electric cars were the norm, but a gas-powered car was produced by the Daimler Motor Company which was founded in Steinway Avenue, Long Island, N.Y. in 1891.

Date:  August 14, 1893
Event:  Tarzan arrives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Source:  Both Phil Farmer and Alan Hanson's research show this sea voyage takes approximately seven days in 1909. Since my chronology shows this travel occurring sixteen years earlier, I have added an extra day to Phil and Alan's date to cover any extra length of time due to technological advances. Once there Tarzan looked up the Porter home where he received divesting news. The Porter's had recently moved to Wisconsin and Canler had followed to marry Jane. "But in Baltimore - Oh, how I have searched for you - they told me you would possibly be married by now. That a man named Canler had come up here to wed you." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  August 21, 1893
Event:  Jane agrees to marry Robert Canler.

Source:  "A week passed; a tense, uneventful, but uncomfortable week for all the inmates of the little Wisconsin farmhouse." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  early morning August 22, 1893
Event:  Robert Canler goes to town to bring back the license and a minister.
Source:  "Early the next morning Canler set out for town." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Date:  about noon August 22, 1893
Event:  Jane goes for a walk and gets trapped by a forest fire.
Source:  "About noon Jane started off for a walk." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

Zdenek Burien

Date:  August 22, 1893

Events:  Minutes later Tarzan arrives at the Porter's Wisconsin farmhouse in a French automobile.

Source:  "Suddenly, out of the northeast, a great black car came careening down the road." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. While riding to the train station with the jungle lord Mr. Philander says, "and now you are driving me along a Wisconsin road in a French automobile." ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. Burroughs does not provide the brand of Tarzan's auto, but in 1893 it was most probably a Panhard or a Peugeot.

1893 Peugeot 3CV

Date:  evening August 22, 1893

Event:  The Porter party is at the train station on the way back to Baltimore. Tarzan receives the telegram proving that he is Lord Greystoke.

Source:  "That evening in the little waiting room at the station Tarzan caught Jane alone for a moment."  ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "She, too, was happy, for was she not returning to her beloved Maryland?"  ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Date:  evening August 22, 1893 

Event:  The Porter party is at the train station on the way back to Baltimore. Tarzan receives the telegram proving that he is Lord Greystoke.

Source:  "That evening in the little waiting room at the station Tarzan caught Jane alone for a moment."  ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes. "She, too was happy, for was she not returning to her beloved Maryland?"  ERB-Tarzan Of The Apes.

 

Menomonee Falls. Wi

• Most readers don't pick up on it, but The Return Of Tarzan actually starts chronology-wise on the same day.

Date:  August 22, 1893

Event:  Porter party in a railway station in northern Wisconsin on the way home to Maryland. Tarzan decides to drive his car to New York. William Cecil Clayton finds Tarzan's dropped cablegram.

Source: Clayton asks Jane where Tarzan is. She replied, "at the last minute he determined to drive his machine back to New York. He is anxious to see more of America than is possible from a car window. He is returning to France, you know." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

Prentice Depot, Wi.

• Most readers think The Return Of Tarzan begins with Tarzan sailing for France which I showed above was not the case. What we do learn about Tarzan's ocean voyage to France is that the jungle lord is age twenty-two when he meets Countess Oga de Coude.

• The very earliest Tarzan could have turned twenty-two and met Countess Oga de Coude was September 1, 1894, his twenty-second birthday. I used this very earliest meeting date to allow time for Jack Clayton to be born under normal conditions. So, the question is... If Tarzan was in Wisconsin on August 22, 1893, and he didn't set sail from New York for France until September 1, 1894, at age twenty-two, what did Tarzan do in America for one year and nine days? Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author of the Tarzan series, never tells us. Not even a clue.  Therefore, anything concluded about this time gap would be an unofficial guess. One thing we know for sure, thanks to Jane Porter, is that Tarzan is planning to drive his car back to New York.

Date:  August 22, 1893

Event:  The Porter party is in a railway station in northern Wisconsin on the way home to Maryland. Tarzan decides to drive his car to New York. William Cecil Clayton finds Tarzan's dropped cablegram.

Source:  Clayton asks Jane where Tarzan is. She replied, "at the last minute he determined to drive his machine back to New York. He is anxious to see more of America than is possible from a car window. He is returning to France, you know." ERB-The Return Of Tarzan.

• Any description after Tarzan leaves Wisconsin in his car is unofficial. Instead of leaving a one-year and nine-day time blackout, however, let's have some fun by reconstructing a timeline of what could have happened.

Date: the evening of August 22, 1893.

Event:  Common logic would dictate that Tarzan would have remained in town for the night since it was already evening.  

Source:  Poor lighting and bad roads mean no driving autos at night. The jungle lord would have rented a room for the night and made arrangements for supper and a bath. He would have turned in early, resting for the auto adventure ahead.

Shlesisingerville, Wi

Date:  August 23, 1893, through middle September. 1893

Event:  Tarzan left Green Bay on his way to New York.

Source:  Over the coming days, the ape-man made his way to Manitowoc, on to Sheboygan, on to Milwaukee then on to Chicago. The jungle lord's Chicago arrival date was mid-September 1893. The weather in Wisconsin can be chilly in the morning and cool at night during this time of the year. Logic dictates Tarzan did not begin driving until the sun had things somewhat warm and stopped before dusk. Keep in mind the jungle lord is from Portuguese Angola in Africa and the coolness would definitely play a factor in his traveling plans. Tarzan's 1893 Peugeot Victoria was a steam motorcar.

Chat:  How do we know Tarzan drove a steam, or electric motorcar, instead of one of the new gasoline motorcars just hitting the marketplace? On September 21, 1894, in Springfield, Massachusetts the brothers Charles and Frank Duryea drove the first gasoline-powered motorcar in America on public roads. Since Tarzan and Robert Canler were driving in Wisconsin in August before this very famous historical event their cars were steam or electric.

1893 Peugeot Victoria

Date: September 1, 1894

Event:  Tarzan sailed from New York City.

Source:  The exact date that Tarzan sailed from New York to France is untold by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, so therefore it will never be known. Although we will never know the exact sailing date a sound logical figuring date can be deduced. We have already concluded in earlier writings that Tarzan was born on September 1, 1872. Therefore, if the ape-man meets Countess Olga de Coude at age twenty-two the meeting had to occur on or after September 1, 1894.

    One must keep in mind that the events of The Return Of Tarzan occur over a span of one year. In The Return Of Tarzan's end, the jungle lord is still twenty-two when he marries Jane. To have enough time for all of these events in The Return Of Tarzan to occur the ape-man would have to leave New York City as soon as possible after his twenty-second birthday.  

    I revealed in TARZINE #62 that Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, had a habitual knack for inserting true life dates, names, and events into his fictional stories. Keeping in that spirit, and following his habit, I have also tried to follow that lead. For a working date, I have deducted Tarzan would have sailed from New York City on September 1, 1894, which is the ape-mans and Edgar Rice Burroughs's birthday. Theoretically speaking, Tarzan, now twenty-two, met the Countess de Coude on September 4, 1894. Although this working date may not be the exact date it does agree with Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author's, descriptions and it provides us with a figuring point.  

J..Allen St. John

Date:  middle September 1893

Event:  In Chicago repairs and services were done to the ape-man's car. Tarzan meets Ed Burroughs for the first time.

Source:  Can you imagine the challenge when there were no such things as auto shops? Perhaps a battery was needed. The jungle lord made his way to the American Battery Company on South Clinton Street. The company serviced the electric cars at the Exhibition. While there, M. Jean C. Tarzan through chance, met the owner's teenage son, Ed Burroughs, future author of the Tarzan series and more.

American Battery Company

Date:  September 16, 1893

Event:  M. Jean C. Tarzan and the teen, Ed Burroughs, met a second time at the World's Columbian Exhibition grounds.

Source:  Young Ed, and sometimes his brother, drove one of the nine-seater electric cars around the fairgrounds advertising their father's batteries. M. Jean C, Tarzan, and Ed could have very well had an adventure together on and around September 16, 1893. This is the date on Ed's World's Columbian Exposition ticket shown in Irwin Porge's Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan on page 77 in the soft edition. That adventure was Ed driving M. Jean C. Tarzan around the fairgrounds for a day, or more, on the trial of a serial killer, Herman Mudgett, aka, Dr. Henry H. Holmes who murdered in Chicago during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

1890 Morrison Sturgis Electric

Date:  October 10, 1893
Event:  The first number plates appear in Paris, France.
Source:  Based on true life events.

First Auto Tags Appear In France

Date:  October 30, 1893

Event:  The 1893 World's Fair, also known as, the World's Columbian Exposition comes to a close.

Source:  Based on true life events.

1893 World's Columbian Exposition

Date:  January 4, 1894

Event:  France ratifies the Duple Alliance with Russia. This new state alliance opened up the door for Russians Nicklos Rokoff and Alex Paulvitich to enter France from New York City.

Source:  Based on true life events.

Chat:  Nickolas Rokoff was the brother of Countess Olga de Coude. She, in turn, was married to Count Raoul de Coude twenty years her senior, who was a higher-up in the French Defense Ministry.

1894 Duple Alliance

Date:  January 8, 1894

Event: Columbus World's Fair in Chicago was destroyed by fire. Tarzan's exact involvement in this incident is unclear in this writing. Most likely something linked to stalking the serial killer, Herman Mudgett, also known as Dr. Henry H. Holmes.

Source:  Based on true life events.

Fire Destroys Columbus World's Fair

Date:  January 27, 1894

Event:  Tarzan attends the first college basketball game. The University of Chicago beat the Chicago YMCA 19-11. Most likely Tarzan's presence had to do with stalking serial killer, Herman Mudgett also known as Dr. Henry H. Holmes.

Source:  Based on true life events.

First College Basketball Game

Date:  February 12, 1894

Event:  Tarzan read in the news shortly after the event, about Anarchist Emile Henry tossing a bomb into Paris Café Terminus.

Source:  Anarchist Emile Henry tossed a bomb into Paris Café Terminus on February 12, 1894, killing one and wounding twenty.

Paris Café Terminus

Date:  May 21, 1894

Event:  Tarzan read in the news shortly after this event, about the execution by guillotine of twenty-two-year-old French Anarchist Emile Henry.

Source:  Twenty-two-year-old French Anarchist Emile Henry was executed by guillotine for bombing Paris Cafe Terminus on May 21, 1894.

Emile Henry Execution

Date:  July 22, 1894

Event:  Tarzan read in the news near this date, about the world's first motoring competition from Paris to Rouen in France.

Source:  The Parisian magazine, Le Petit Journal organized what is considered the world's first motoring competition. The race was held on July 22, 1894, and from Paris to Rouen, France.

1894 Le Petit Journal

Date:  middle September through April 30, 1894

Event:  Tarzan stalks a serial killer, Herman Mudgett, aka Dr, Henry H, Holmes who was a murderer in Chicago during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Source:  Based on true-life police reports.

Dr. Henry H. Homes

   

Date::   May 1, 1893, through October 30, 1893

Event:  Herman Mudgett, also known as Dr. Henry H Homes, a serial killer, lured victims, including a number of fairgoers to a three-story building, later dubbed as the "Murder Castle", where they were tortured, mutilated, and killed

Source:  Based on true-life police reports. America's first serial killer H. H. Holmes heinous crimes weren't discovered until after the fair ended on October 30, 1894. Law enforcement believed that H. H. Holmes was responsible for dozens of deaths in Chicago, and may have killed as many as two hundred people around the nation.

1893 Murder Castle

Date:  Monday, April 30, 1894

Event:  After his visit to the World's Columbian Exposition, the jungle lord left Chicago and made his way to Toledo, on to Cleveland. From there most likely to Pittsburg, then Harrisburg, then Newark, then New York.

Source:  Remember, outside the towns and cities paved roads were rare. Early motorists had to face dust and sand in the summer, floods, and axle-deep mud in the winter. There were very few mileposts or signposts, and no filling stations. Logic dictates that the visiting ape-man would have stuck to the main avenues.

1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition

Date:  Thursday, June 21, 1894   

Event:  Tarzan arrived in New York City on the day Lizzy Halliday was convicted of murdering Margret and Sarah Jane McQuillan.

Source:  Based on true-life police reports. Lizzy Halliday became the first woman ever to be sentenced to death by electrocution, via New York State's new electric chair.

Lizzy Halliday

Date:  June 22, 1894

Event:  Upon arriving in New York City Tarzan would have taken in the sights.

Source:  One of those sights would have been the newly constructed Brooklyn Bridge that opened in 1883. People from all over came to see it. The Brooklyn Bridge towers were stupendous. Naturally, the ape-man must have had some kind of adventure on it before leaving New York. From New York, chapter one of The Return Of Tarzan begins three days out into the sea and the jungle lord is now twenty-two and going by the name M. Jean C. Tarzan.

Brooklyn Bridge

                                                                                                                                                      Date:  June  24, 1894

Event:  Tarzan read in the news shortly after this event, about the assassination of French President, Marie Francois Sadi Carnot.

Source:  President of France, Marie Francois Sadi Carnot, is assassinated on June 24, 1894.

Marie Francois Sadi Carnot

Date:  July 4, 1894

Event:  July 4th celebration in New York City.
Source::  Based on a real-life event.

1894 NYC July 4th

Date:  August 15, 1894

Event:  Tarzan read in the news near this date, about the execution of Sante Geronimo Caserio, for the assassination of French President Marice Francois Sadi.

Source   Sante Geronimo Caserio is executed on August 15, 1894, for the assassination of French President Maric Francois Sadi.

Sante Geronimo Caserio

Date:  September 1, 1894  
Event:  Tarzan sailed from New York City.

Source:  The exact date that Tarzan sailed from New York to France is untold by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, so therefore it will never be known. Although we will never know the exact sailing date a sound logical figuring date can be deduced. We have already concluded in earlier writings that Tarzan was born on September 1, 1872. Therefore, if the ape-man meets Countess Olga de Coude at age twenty-two the meeting had to occur after September 1, 1894.

    One must keep in mind that the events of The Return Of Tarzan occur over a span of one year. In The Return Of Tarzan's end, the jungle lord is still twenty-two when he marries Jane. To have enough time for all the events in The Return Of Tarzan to occur, plus the birth of Jack Clayton, (Korak) offstage, the ape-man would have to leave New York City as soon as possible after his twenty-second birthday.

J. Allen St. John

• Tarzan is twenty years old when Tarzan Of The Apes comes to a close.

Date:  September 21, 1894   

Event:  Tarzan read in the news, near this date, about brothers Charles and Frank Duryea driving the first gasoline-powered motorcar in America, on public roads in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Source:  On September 21, 1894, Charles and Frank Duryea drove the first gasoline-powered motorcar in America on public roads in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1894 Paris-Rouen Race

Date:  October 15, 1894
Event:  Captain Alfred Dreyfus was arrested and accused of espionage in France.
Source:  Based on true life events.
Chat:  Any connection to the secret papers Tarzan seized in Algiers from Captain Gernois?

Captain Alfred Dreyfus

Date:  November 17, 1894

Event:  Herman Mudgett, aka, H. H. Holmes, married his fourth wife Georgiana Yoke;

Source: Based on true life events. 

Date:  November 17, 1894

Event:  America's first serial killer Herman Mudgett, also known as H. H. Holmes, was apprehended in Boston, Massachusetts.

Source:  Herman Mudgett, aka, Dr. H.H. Holmes, was arrested on November 17, 1894, in Boston, Massachusetts. Law enforcement believed that H. H. Holmes was responsible for dozens of deaths.

The Evening Star

Date:  May 7, 1895

Event: Tarzan read in the news near this date about Herman Webster Mudgett, AKA / Dr. Henry Howard being hanged in Mayamensing Prison in Philadelphia, Pa.

Event:  Based on true life events.   

Date:  late 1910 or early 1911

Event:  When John Carter's great-nephew relayed Greystoke's story to Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, in 1910 or 1911 the Chicago native knew the adventure was based on the truth. Therefore, he had no problem with altering the dates to protect the Greystoke's true identity.

Source:  Ed had met M. Jean C. Tarzan himself. To protect the Greystoke family's true identity Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author, and John Carter's great-nephew decided to move the dates forward sixteen years in their The All-Story publication of Tarzan Of The Apes which was published in October 1912.

Clinton Pletee

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Michael Moody is a lifelong fan and collector of Edger Rice Burroughs. Over the past forty-five years, Moody has contributed over two hundred articles to various ERB-related fanzines. He also manages an unauthorized Tarzan blog titled Greystoke Chronologist: James Michael Moody. There, the researcher chronologies the Tarzan books starting in May 1872 (known as the pushback theory) instead of the more accepted date, May 1888.

James Michael Moody also authorizes the action-packed Sci-Fi fantasy adventure Unium series. Pioneers On Unium, published December 31, 2019, Exiled On Unium, published August 25, 2022, and, Swordsman On Unium published on July 15, 2024.