Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von
Humboldt? (September 14, 1769, Berlin – May 6, 1859, Berlin) was a Prussian naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the
Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm
von Humboldt. Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography was foundational to the field of biogeography. Between 1799 and 1804, von
Humboldt travelled to Latin America, exploring and describing it from a scientific point of view for the first time. His
description of much of this journey was written up in an enormous set of volumes over a 21-year span. He was one of the first to
propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic were once joined (South America and Africa in particular). Late in life, in his
five-volume work Kosmos, he attempted to unify the various branches involved in knowledge of the world. Humboldt supported
and worked with other scientists, among them Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac,
Justus von Liebig, Louis Agassiz, and
Matthew Fontaine Maury.
Humboldt's life and travels
Early life and education
Von Humboldt's father, who was a major in the Prussian army, belonged to a prominent
Pomeranian family and was rewarded for his services during the Seven Years' War with the post of Royal Chamberlain. He married Maria Elizabeth von Colomb in 1766, the
widow of Baron von Holwede, and had by her two sons, of whom the younger was Alexander.
The childhood of Alexander von Humboldt was not a promising one as regards either health or intellect. His characteristic
tastes, however, soon displayed themselves; and from his penchant for collecting and labelling plants, shells, and insects he
received the playful title of "the little apothecary." The care of his education, on the unexpected death of his father in 1779,
devolved upon his mother, who discharged the trust with constancy and judgment. Destined for a political career, he studied
finance during six months at the University of Frankfurt (Oder); and a year later,
April 25, 1789, he matriculated at Göttingen, then eminent for the lectures of CG Heyne and J. F. Blumenbach. His vast and
varied powers were by this time fully developed, and during a vacation in 1789, he made a scientific excursion up the
Rhine, and produced the treatise, Mineralogische Beobachtungen über einige Basalte am Rhein
(Brunswick, 1790).
His passion for travel was confirmed by friendships formed at Göttingen with Georg
Forster, Heyne's son-in-law, the distinguished companion of Captain James Cook's
second voyage. Henceforth his studies and rare combination of personal talents became directed with extraordinary insight and
perseverance to the purpose of preparing himself for a distinctive calling as a scientific explorer. With this view he studied
commerce and foreign languages at Hamburg, geology at Technische
Universität Bergakademie Freiberg under A. G. Werner, anatomy at
Jena under J. C. Loder, astronomy and the use of scientific
instruments under F. X. von Zach and J.
G. Köhler. His researches into the vegetation of the mines of Freiberg led to
the publication in 1793 of his Florae Fribergensis Specimen; and the results of a prolonged course of experiments on the
phenomena of muscular irritability, then recently discovered by L. Galvani, were contained
in his Versuche über die gereizte Muskel- und Nervenfaser (Berlin, 1797), enriched in the French translation with notes by
Blumenbach.
A portrait of Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, 1806
Travels and work in Europe
In 1794 he was admitted to the intimacy of the famous Weimar coterie, and contributed (June
1795) to Schiller's new periodical, Die Horen, a philosophical
allegory entitled Die Lebenskraft, oder der rhodische Genius. In the summer of 1790 he
paid a short visit to England in company with Forster. In
1792 and 1797 he was in Vienna; in 1795 he made a geological and botanical tour through
Switzerland and Italy. He had obtained in the meantime
official employment: appointed assessor of mines at Berlin, February 29, 1792. Although this service to the state was regarded by him as only an apprenticeship to the service of science,
he fulfilled its duties with such conspicuous ability that he not only rose rapidly to the highest post in his department, but
was as well entrusted with several important diplomatic missions. The death of his mother, on 19
November 1796, set him free to follow the bent of his genius, and severing his official
connections, he waited for an opportunity to fulfill his long-cherished dream of travel.
The Latin American expedition
On the postponement of Captain Baudin's proposed voyage of circumnavigation, which he had been officially invited to accompany, he left Paris for Marseille with Aimé
Bonpland, the designated botanist of the frustrated expedition, hoping to join Bonaparte in Egypt. Means of transport, however, were not forthcoming, and the two travellers eventually found
their way to Madrid, where the unexpected patronage of the minister Don Mariano Luis de Urquijo
determined them to make Spanish America the scene of their explorations.
Armed with powerful recommendations, they sailed in the Pizarro from A
Coruña, on June 5 1799, stopped six days at Tenerife for the ascent of the Peak, and landed, on July 16, at Cumaná, Venezuela. He visited the mission at Caripe where he found the oil-bird, which he was to make known to science as
Steatornis caripensis. Returning to Cumaná, Humboldt observed, on the night of the 11-12th of November, a remarkable
meteor shower (the Leonids) which forms the
starting-point of our acquaintance with the periodicity of the phenomenon. He proceeded with Bonpland to Caracas; and in February 1800 he left the coast for the purpose of exploring the course of the Orinoco River. This trip, which lasted four months, and covered 1725 miles of wild and uninhabited
country, had the important result of establishing the existence of a communication between the
water-systems of the Orinoco and Amazon River, and of determining the exact position
of the bifurcation. Electric eels were captured by von
Humboldt (with Bonpland) around March 19, 1800. The researchers
received massive electric shocks during their investigations.
On November 24, the two friends set sail for Cuba, and after a stay of some months
regained the mainland at Cartagena. Ascending the swollen stream of the
Magdalena, and crossing the frozen ridges of the Cordillera Real, they reached Quito after a tedious and
difficult journey on January 6 1802. Their stay there was marked
by the ascent of Pichincha and Chimborazo. Humboldt and his party reached an altitude of 19,286 feet, a world record at the time.
The journey concluded with an expedition to the sources of the Amazon en route for Lima. At Callao, Humboldt observed the transit of Mercury on November 9, and studied the fertilizing
properties of guano, the introduction of which into Europe was mainly due to his writings. A
tempestuous sea-voyage brought them to Mexico, where they resided for a year traveling to
different cities, followed by a short visit to the United States of America, they set sail for Europe from the mouth of the
Delaware, and landed at Bordeaux on August 3, 1804.
Achievements of the Latin American expedition
An
1815 self-portrait of Humboldt (age 45).
Humboldt may justly be regarded as having in this memorable expedition laid the foundation in their larger bearings of the
sciences of physical geography and meteorology. By his delineation (in 1817) of "isothermal
lines," he at once suggested the idea and devised the means of comparing the climatic conditions of various countries. He first
investigated the rate of decrease in mean temperature with increase of elevation above sea level, and afforded, by his inquiries
into the origin of tropical storms, the earliest clue to the detection of the more complicated law governing atmospheric
disturbances in higher latitudes; while his essay on the geography of plants was based on the then novel idea of studying the
distribution of organic life as affected by varying physical conditions. His discovery of the decrease in intensity of Earth's
magnetic field from the poles to the equator was communicated to the Paris Institute in a
memoir read by him on the 7 December 1804, and its importance
was attested by the speedy emergence of rival claims. His services to geology were mainly based on his attentive study of the
volcanoes of the New World. He showed that they fell
naturally into linear groups, presumably corresponding with vast subterranean fissures; and by his demonstration of the
igneous origin of rocks previously held to be of aqueous formation, he contributed largely
to the elimination of erroneous views.
The reduction into form and publication of the encyclopaedic mass of materials - scientific, political and archaeological -
collected by him during his absence from Europe was now Humboldt's most urgent desire. After a short trip to Italy with
Gay-Lussac for the purpose of investigating the law of magnetic declination, and a sojourn of two years and a half in his native city, he finally, in the
spring of 1808, settled in Paris with the purpose of securing the scientific cooperation required for bringing his great work
through the press. This colossal task, which he at first hoped would have occupied but two years, eventually cost him twenty-one,
and even then remained incomplete. In these early years in Paris, he shared accommodation and laboratory with his first rival now
friend, Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, both together working on gas analyses and the
composition of the atmosphere.
Humboldt acclaimed
With the exception of Napoleon Bonaparte, Humboldt was now the most famous man
in Europe. Acclaimed American painter Rembrandt Peale even painted him during his stay
between 1808 and 1810 as one of the most prominent figures in Europe at the time. A chorus of applause greeted him from every
side. Academies, both native and foreign, were eager to enroll him among their members. Frederick William III of Prussia conferred upon him the honour, without exacting the
duties, attached to the post of royal chamberlain, together with a pension of 2,500 thalers,
afterwards doubled. He refused the appointment of Prussian minister of public instruction in 1810. In 1814 he accompanied the
allied sovereigns to London. Three years later he was summoned by the king of Prussia to attend him at the congress of Aachen. Again in the autumn of 1822 he accompanied the same monarch to
the congress of Verona, proceeded thence with the royal party to Rome and Naples, and
returned to Paris in the spring of 1823.
He had long regarded the French capital as his true home. There he found, not only scientific sympathy, but the social
stimulus which his vigorous and healthy mind eagerly craved. He was equally in his element as the lion of the salons and as the
savant of the institute and the observatory. Thus, when at last he received from his sovereign a summons to join his court at
Berlin, he obeyed indeed, but with deep and lasting regret. The provincialism of his native city was odious to him. He never
ceased to rail against the bigotry without religion, aestheticism without culture, and philosophy without common sense, which he
found dominant on the banks of the Spree. The unremitting benefits and sincere attachment of two
well-meaning princes secured his gratitude, but could not appease his discontent. At first he sought relief from the "nebulous
atmosphere" of his new abode by frequent visits to Paris; but as years advanced his excursions were reduced to accompanying the
monotonous "oscillations" of the court between Potsdam and Berlin. On 12 May 1827 he settled permanently in the Prussian capital, where his first efforts were directed towards the furtherance
of the science of terrestrial magnetism. For many years it had been one of his favourite schemes to secure, by means of
simultaneous observations at distant points, a thorough investigation of the nature and law of "magnetic storms" a term invented by him to designate abnormal disturbances of Earth's magnetism. The meeting at Berlin, on 18 September
1828, of a newly-formed scientific association, of which he was elected president, gave him the
opportunity of setting on foot an extensive system of research in combination with his diligent personal observations. His appeal
to the Russian government in 1829 led to the establishment of a line of magnetic and meteorological stations across northern
Asia; while his letter to the Duke of Sussex, then (April
1836) president of the Royal Society, secured for the undertaking the wide basis of the
British dominions. Thus that scientific conspiracy of nations which is one of the noblest
fruits of modern civilization was by his exertions first successfully organized.
Explorations in Russia
In 1811, and again in 1818, projects of Asiatic exploration were proposed to Humboldt, first by
the Russian, and afterwards by the Prussian government; but on each occasion untoward circumstances interposed, and it was not
until he had entered upon his sixtieth year that he resumed his early role of a traveller in the interests of science. Between
May and November 1829 he, together with his chosen associates Gustav Rose and C.
G. Ehrenberg, traversed the wide expanse of the Russian empire from the Neva to the Yenesei, accomplishing in twenty-five
weeks a distance of 9,614 miles. The journey, however, though carried out with all the advantages
afforded by the immediate patronage of the Russian government, was too rapid to be profitable. Its most important fruits were the
correction of the prevalent exaggerated estimate of the height of the Central Asian plateau, and the discovery of diamonds in the
gold-washings of the Ural, a result which Humboldt's Brazilian experiences enabled him to predict, and by predicting to
secure.
Humboldt as diplomat
Between 1830 and 1848 von Humboldt was frequently employed in
diplomatic missions to the court of Louis Philippe, with whom he always
maintained the most cordial personal relations.
His brother Wilhelm von Humboldt died in Alexander's arms on 8 April 1836. The death saddened the later years of his life; Alexander lamented
that he had "lost half of my self" in the death of his brother.
Upon the accession of the crown prince Frederick William IV in June
1840 von Humboldt's favour at court increased. Indeed, the new king's craving for von Humboldt's
company became at times so importunate as to leave him only a few hours aside from sleep to work on his writing.
The "Cosmos"
Statue of Alexander von Humboldt outside
Humboldt University, Unter den
Linden, Berlin. Note the Spanish inscription describing him as "the second discoverer of Cuba."
It is not often that a man postpones to his seventy-sixth year, and then successfully executes, the crowning task of his life.
Yet this was Humboldt's case. The first two volumes of the Cosmos were published, and in the main composed, between the
years 1845 and 1847. The idea of a work which should convey not only a graphic description, but an imaginative conception of the
physical world which should support generalization by details, and dignify details by generalization, had floated before his mind
for more than half a century. It first took definite shape in a set of lectures delivered
by him before the University of Berlin in the winter of 1827–1828. These
lectures formed, as his latest biographer expresses it, "the cartoon for the great fresco of the Kosmos." The scope of
this remarkable work may be briefly described as the representation of the unity amid the complexity of nature. In it the large
and vague ideals of the 18th are sought to be combined with the exact scientific requirements of the 19th century. And, in spite
of inevitable shortcomings, the attempt was in an eminent degree successful. A certain heaviness of style, too, and laborious
picturesqueness of treatment make it more imposing than attractive to the general reader. But its supreme and abiding value
consists in its faithful reflection of the mind of a great man. No higher eulogium can be passed on Alexander von Humboldt than
that, in attempting, and not unworthily attempting, to portray the universe, he succeeded still
more perfectly in portraying his own comprehensive intelligence.
The last decade of his long life — his "improbable" years, as he was accustomed to calling them — was devoted to the
continuation of this work, of which the third and fourth volumes were published in 1850–1858, while a fragment of a fifth
appeared posthumously in 1862. In these he sought to elaborate upon the individual branches of science broadly surveyed in the
first volume. Notwithstanding their high separate value, it must be admitted that, from an artistic point of view, these
additions were deformities. The characteristic idea of the work, so far as such a gigantic idea admitted of literary
incorporation, was completely developed in its opening portions, and the attempt to convert it into a scientific encyclopaedia
was in truth to nullify its generating motive. Humboldt's remarkable industry and accuracy were never more conspicuous than in
this latest trophy to his genius. Nor did he rely entirely on his own labours. He owed much of what he accomplished to his rare
power of assimilating thoughts that were not as his own and availing himself of others' cooperation. The notes to Kosmos overflow
with laudatory citations, the current coin in which he discharged his intellectual debts.
Illness and death
On February 24, 1857 Humboldt suffered a minor
stroke, which passed without perceptible symptoms. It was not until the winter of 1858–1859 that
his strength began to decline, and that spring on 6 May he died quietly at the age of 89. The
honours which had been showered on him during life continued after his death. His remains, prior to being interred in the family
resting-place at Tegel, were conveyed in state through the streets of Berlin, and received by the
prince-regent at the door of the cathedral. The first centenary of his birth was celebrated on 14
September, 1869 with great enthusiasm in both the New and Old Worlds. Numerous monuments
erected in his honour, and newly explored regions named after Alexander von Humboldt, bear witness to his wide fame and
popularity.
Personal life
Much of Humboldt's private life remains a mystery because he destroyed his private letters. However, in 1908 the sexual
researcher Paul Näcke, who worked with Magnus Hirschfeld, gathered reminiscences of
him from people who recalled his participation in the homosexual subculture of Berlin.[1] A travelling companion, the pious Francisco José de Caldas, accused him of frequenting houses where 'impure love reigned', of
making friends with 'obscene dissolute youths', and giving vent to 'shameful passions of his heart'.[2]
Throughout his life Humboldt formed strong emotional attachments to men. To the soldier Reinhard von Haeften he wrote: "I know
that I live only through you, my good precious Reinhard, and that I can only be happy in your presence." [3] He never married, yet there were two notable exceptions where he seemed to
have been drawn to the opposite sex. The first was an adolescent infatuation with the beautiful wife of Marcus Herz, his mentor, and the second was a short lived but intimate relationship with a woman named
Pauline Wiesel in 1808 Paris.[4] He was strongly attached
to his brother's family; and in his later years the somewhat arbitrary sway of an old and faithful servant held him in more than
matrimonial bondage. By a singular example of generosity (or some people would say weakness), he executed, four years before his
death, a deed of gift transferring to this man Seifert the absolute possession of his entire property. No undue advantage appears
to have been taken of this extraordinary concession. Of the qualities of his heart it is less easy to speak than of those of his
head.
The clue to his inner life might well be found in a certain egotism of self-culture scarcely separable from the promptings of
genius. Yet his attachments, once formed, were sincere and lasting. He made innumerable friends; and it does not stand on record
that he ever lost one. His benevolence was throughout his life active and disinterested. His early zeal for the improvement of
the condition of the miners in Galicia and Franconia, his consistent detestation of slavery, his earnest patronage of rising men of science, bear witness
to the large humanity which formed the ground-work of his character.
The faults of his old age have been brought into undue prominence by the injudicious publication of his letters to
Varnhagen von Ense. The chief of these was his habit of smooth speaking,
almost amounting to flattery, which formed a painful contrast with the caustic sarcasm of his confidential utterances. His
vanity, at all times conspicuous, was tempered by his sense of humour, and was so frankly avowed as to invite sympathy rather
than provoke ridicule. After every deduction has been made, he yet stands before us as a colossal figure, not unworthy to take
his place beside Goethe as the representative of the scientific side of the
culture of his country.
Honors and namesakes
Species named after Humboldt
-
- See also the list of things named for Alexander von Humboldt.
As a consequence of his explorations, von Humboldt described many geographical features and species of life that were hitherto
unknown to Europeans. Species named after him include:
Geographical Features named after Humboldt
Features named after him include the following:
Places named after Humboldt
The following places are named for Humboldt:
- Humboldt, South Dakota, United States
- Humboldt, Tennessee, United States
- Humboldt, Kansas, United States
- Humboldt County, California, United States
- Humboldt County, Nevada, United States
- Humboldt County, Iowa, United States
- Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada
- Humboldt Junior High School, Saint Paul, MN, United States
- Humboldt Senior High School, Saint Paul, MN, United States
- Humboldt Park: an official Community Area and park in Chicago, Illinois,
United States
- Humboldt Peak (Pico Humboldt) Mérida State, Venezuela
- Alejandro de Humboldt National Park, Cuba
- Alexander von Humboldt National Forest in Peru
The Mare Humboldtianum lunar mare is named
after him, as is the asteroid 54 Alexandra.
The Humboldt Tropical Medicine Institute at Cayetano Heredia University, Lima, Peru, was named after Alexander von Humboldt, as well as
Humboldt State University in Arcata,
California, Alexander Von Humboldt school in Mexico City, Several German schools (including Humboldt University of Berlin) are named after Alexander's brother Wilhelm. In Montréal the German International School was named after Alexander von Humboldt.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
After his death, his friends and colleagues created the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation (Stiftung in German) to continue von Humboldt's generous support of young scientists . Although
the original endowment was lost in the German hyperinflation of the 1920s, and again as a
result of World War II, the Foundation has been re-endowed by the German government to
award young scientistis and distinguished senior scientists from abroad. It plays an important role in attracting foreign
researchers to work in Germany and enabling German researchers to work abroad for a period.
Dedications
Edgar Allan Poe dedicated his last great work, Eureka: A Prose Poem, to von Humboldt. Humboldt's attempt to unify the sciences in his
Kosmos was a big inspiration for Poe's project.
Charles Darwin makes frequent reference to Humboldt's work in his Voyage of the Beagle, where Darwin describes his own scientific exploration of the
Americas.
Recognitions by contemporaries
Wilhelm von Humboldt: "Alexander is destined to combine ideas and follow
chains of thoughts which would otherwise have remained unknown for ages. His depth, his sharp mind and his incredible speed are a
rare combination."
Charles Darwin: "He was the greatest travelling scientist who ever lived." –
"I have always admired him; now I worship him."
Johann Wolfgang Goethe: "Humboldt showers us with true
treasures."
Friedrich Schiller: "Alexander impresses many, particularly when compared to
his brother - because he shows off more!"
Simón Bolívar: "Alexander von Humboldt has done more for America than all its
conquerors, he is the true discoverer of America."
José de la Luz y Caballero: "Columbus gave Europe a New World; Humboldt
made it known in its physical, material, intellectual, and moral aspects."
Napoléon Bonaparte: "You have been studying Botanics? Just like my
wife!"
Claude Louis Berthollet: "This man is as knowledgeable as a whole
academy."
Thomas Jefferson: "I consider him the most important scientist whom I have
met."
Emil Du Bois-Reymond: "Every scientist is a descendant of Humboldt. We are
all his family."
Publications
Biographies and other works
A good biography of Humboldt is that of Professor Karl Bruhns (3 vols., 8vo, Leipzig, 1872), translated into English by the
Misses Lasseil in 1873. A good 1852 biography, 'Lives of the Brothers Humboldt' is freely available (see external links
below).
Brief accounts of his career are given by A. Dove in Allgemeine Deutsche
Biographie, and by S. Gunther in Alexander von Humboldt (Berlin, 1900). Le voyage aux régions equinoxiales
du Nouveau Continent, fait en 1799-1804, par Alexandre de Humboldt el Aimé Bonpland (Paris, 1807, etc.), consisted of thirty
folio and quarto volumes, and comprised a considerable number of subordinate but important works. Among these may be enumerated
Vue des Cordillères et monuments des peuples indigènes de l'Amérique (2 vols. folio, 1810); Examen critique de
l'histoire de la géographie du Nouveau Continent (1814-1834); Atlas géographique et physique du royaume de la Nouvelle
Espagne (1811); Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne (1811); Essai sur la géographie des
plantes (1805, now very rare); and Relation historique (1814-1825), an unfinished narrative of his travels, including
the Essai politique sur l'île de Cuba.
The Nova genera et species plantarum (7 vols. folio, 1815-1825), containing descriptions of above 4500 species of
plants collected by Humboldt and Bonpland, was mainly compiled by Carl Sigismund
Kunth; J. Oltmanns assisted in preparing the Recueil d'observations astronomiques (1808); Cuvier, Latreille,
Valenciennes and Gay-Lussac cooperated in the Recueil d'observations de zoologie et d'anatomie comparée (1805-1833).
Humboldt's Ansichten der Natur (Stuttgart and Tübingen, 1808) went through three editions in his lifetime, and was
translated into nearly every European language. The results of his Asiatic journey were published in Fragments de géologie et
de climatologie asiatiques (2 vols. 8vo, 1831), and in Asie centrale (3 vols. 8vo, 1843) an enlargement of the earlier
work. The memoirs and papers read by him before scientific societies, or contributed by him to scientific periodicals, are too
numerous for specification.
Humboldt's effect on American scientists and environmentalists (Clarence King,
Jeremiah N. Reynolds, George Wallace
Melville, and John Muir) is examined in The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth Century
Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism, by Aaron Sachs (Viking, 2006).
Daniel Kehlmann's 2005 novel Die Vermessung der Welt, translated into English
by Carol Brown Janeway as Measuring the World: a Novel in 2006, explores von Humboldt's life through a lens of historical
fiction, contrasting his character and contributions to science to those of Carl Friedrich
Gauss.
An essay entitled Journey to the Top of the World details Humbolt's South American exploration and America's interest
in him. The essay is chapter one of David McCullough's book, Brave Companions: Portraits in
History, (Prentice Hall Press, 1992).
Humboldt's correspondence
Since his death considerable portions of his correspondence have been made public. The first of these, in order both of time
and of importance, is his Briefe an Varnhagen von Enze (Leipzig, 1860) This was followed in rapid succession by
Briefwechsel mit einem jungen Freunde (Friedrich Althaus, Berlin, 1861); Briefwechsel mit Heinrich Berghaus (~
vols., Jena, 1863); Correspondence scientifique e littéraire (2 vols., Paris, 1865?1869); Lettres à Marc-Aug.
Pictet, published in Le Globe, tome vii. (Geneva, 1868); Briefe an Bunsen (Leipzig, 1869); Briefe zwischen
Humboldt und Gauss (1877); Briefe an seinen Bruder Wilhelm (Stuttgart, 1880); Jugendbriefe an W. G. Wegener
(Leipzig, 1896); besides some other collections of less note. An octavo edition of Humboldt's principal works was published in
Paris by Tb. Morgand (1864?1866). See also, Karl von Baer, Bulletin de l'acad. des sciences de St-Pétersbourg, xvii. 529
(1859); R. Murchison, Proceedings, Geog. Society of London, vi. (1859); L. Agassiz, American Jour. of Science, xxviii. 96 (1859);
Proc. Roy. Society, X. xxxix.; A. Quetelet, Annuaire de l'acad. des sciences (Brussels, 1860), p. 97; J. Mädler, Geschichte
der Himmelskunde, ii. 113; J.C.Houzeau, Bibl. astronomique, ii. 168. (A. M. C.)
See also
References
- Helferich, Gerard. Humbold's Cosmos, (Penguin; 2004).
- Sachs, Aaron. The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism,
(Viking; 496 pages; 2006). A study of the Prussian naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) that examines his
influence on four American explorers, Clarence King, George Wallace Melville, John Muir, and J.N. Reynolds, as well as on such
writers as Emerson, Poe, Thoreau, and Whitman.
Notes
- ^ Havelock Henry Ellis (1927). "Sexual Inversion".
Studies in the Psychology of Sex 2: 39.
- ^ Colonialism and Homosexuality by Robert F. Aldrich, Routledge,
London 2003. p29
- ^ The Life and Times of Alexander Von Humboldt, by Helmut de Terra.
Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1955. p63
- ^ Helferich, Gerard (2004). Humbold't Cosmos, 312.
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