Historian Dean Karau’s video, “RUSSELL TRALL NEVILLE – ‘The Cave Man,’” was selected by the judges for inclusion in the Video Salon at the 2023 National Speleological Society Convention held at the end of June at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, W. Va.

Russell T. Neville (1878 – 1950) was a Kewanee attorney, amateur photographer and cave explorer. During the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, Neville was the foremost celebrity of American speleology. Advertising himself as “The Cave Man,” the Kewanee native took thousands of photos in American caves, and even took the earliest motion pictures in wild caves. Using these images, he presented a lecture called “In the Cellars of the World” across the country to hundreds of groups of all ages.

Karau collaborated on the video with Dean H. Snyder, president of American Spelean History Association, an organization of cavers, i.e., cave explorers (they prefer the term “caver” over “spelunker” when describing themselves). Snyder arguably is the preeminent scholar of Neville, he has hundreds of Neville photos and other memorabilia, and he is planning to publish a book on Neville.

The jurors’ awards were announced, along with vignettes of the productions entered, at the NSS Awards Salon on Thursday night, June 29, 2023, during the Convention. All entries were also shown again, in their entirety, on Friday morning to a very appreciative audience.

Of the Neville video, Juror Frank Binney wrote: “Great scholarship in documenting the bio of an important figure in Mammoth Cave history. This program would make an excellent presentation for an NSS Convention Spelean History session.”

Juror Alex Sproul said: “I see this as a remarkable compilation of every tidbit that can be known about Russell Neville . . . [a]nd it’s put together in a smooth display of clippings, photos, and video of his life.

“The presentation is expertly crafted. The font for the opening credits is spot on, and the cross-fade from black & white to color on many photos is impressive. I also liked the technique of outlining in red important text on a page and then smoothly bringing it closer. It creates the illusion of being shown a newspaper and then having the important paragraph pointed out, and it adds context to the Neville information being highlighted. The turning of newspaper pages is also smooth and impressive. The background music is entirely from the period, and almost as rare as the Neville memorabilia.”

And Juror John Waller declared: “Almost as impressive as the depth of Neville’s photography is the depth of details contained in this film. The research that went into assembling the story of his life and career is exceptional and I can imagine the filmmaker pouring through reels of microfiche in the public library, uncovering the lost fingerprints of Neville.”

The video will be incorporated into the NSS Audio-Visual Library. It can be viewed by clicking here.

Founded in 1941, the NSS is the largest membership organization dedicated to caves and caving. Composed of over 8,000 members and 250+ local chapters – known as grottos – it works to connect cavers so they can work on exploring, studying, and conserving caves worldwide.
The Video Salon is a competition among producers of moving-image depictions related to caves, cavers, caving, and cave conservation/restoration.

Dean Karau will be at the Kewanee Historical Society’s Robert & Marcella Richards Museum on Saturday, August 12, 2023, at 1 p.m. to talk about Russell T. Neville’s photography & caving exploits. Hopefully Dean Snyder will join him via video conferencing if the museum’s technology capabilities permit. Join them to see more of Neville’s photography and learn more about this fascinating, lifelong Kewanee resident.