Exploration
Adelbert von Chamisso. Reise um die Welt, mit der Romanzoffischen Entdeckungs-Expedition in den Jahren 1815–18, auf der Brigg Rurik, Kapitain Otto v. Kotzebue
Leipzig: 1836
Adelbert von Chamisso (1781–1838) was a German romantic writer and naturalist. From 1815 to 1818, he acted as a botanist on the Russian ship Rurik during Otto von Kotzebue’s scientific voyage around the world, and in 1818, he was appointed curator of the Berlin Botanical Gardens. Chamisso’s diary of the voyage to the Pacific appeared in print in 1836. Volume I features his portrait adjacent to the title page. Volume II depicts his informant Kadu, a native of the Marshall Islands, in the same position next to the title page. Kadu journeyed with Chamisso for nine months in 1817, offering his perspectives and insights. Their close and collaborative relationship highlights the varied sources of information that shaped European views of the Pacific.
Georg Forster. Geschichte der reisen die seit Cook an der nordwest- und nordost-küste von Amerika und in dem nördlichsten Amerika selbst von Meares, Dixon, Portlock, Coxe, Long u.a.m. unternommen worden sind
Berlin: 1791
Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754–1794) is the son of Johann Reinhold Forster (1729–1798), a German naturalist and scientist of Scottish descent, who made significant contributions to natural history and exploration in the late eighteenth century. The father and son duo accompanied James Cook’s second voyage aboard the Resolution. After a dispute with the Admiralty precluded Johann Reinhold Forster from writing the official account, they wrote an unofficial account of the journey in English in 1777 and issued it in the name of Georg Forster. This volume is a German-language history of the voyage edited and translated by Georg Forster from the English. Although mainly known for its contributions to the ethnology of Polynesia, the work also contained information about the northern reaches of the Pacific as evidenced by this map.
Georg Heinrich Langsdorff. Bemerkungen auf einer Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803 bis 1807
Frankfurt am Main: 1812
Georg Heinrich Langsdorff (1774–1852) was a German physician with a passion for natural history. Together with Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, chamberlain of Czar Alexander I and Russian ambassador to Japan, Langsdorff accompanied the round-the-world expedition led by Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern until it reached Kamchatka in 1805. At Kamchatka, Rezanov and Langsdorff left the expedition and proceeded to the Aleutian Islands and to Alaska, to study the Russian-American Company for the Czar. The sketches of dog sleds shown here depict a means of transportation in the snowy North Pacific.
Otto von Kotzebue. Entdeckungs-Reise in die Süd-See und nach der Berings-Strasse zur Erforschung einer nordöstlichen Durchfahrt. Unternommen in den Jahren 1815, 1816, 1817, und 1818
Weimar: 1821
Otto von Kotzebue (1787–1846) circumnavigated the globe three times during his lifetime and discovered the sound in western Alaska that still bears his name. This account of his expedition aboard the Rurik includes the earliest known description of the Golden Poppy, now the California state flower. The men on board the expedition paid detailed attention to various forms of life as evidenced by the beautiful drawings of butterflies seen here.
Alexander von Humboldt. Vues des Cordillères, et monumens des peuples indigènes de I’Amérique
Paris: 1810
Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was an eminent German naturalist, geographer, traveler, and scientific explorer. From 1799 to 1804, he traveled with the French botanist Aimé Bonpland on a scientific journey to Spanish South America, Cuba, Mexico, and Central America. Humboldt’s expedition was fundamental to the development of the sciences of physical geography and meteorology, and he made important contributions to the studies of ethnicity and culture. After the expedition Humboldt lived in Paris for roughly two decades, then after 1829 he lived mostly in Berlin. This atlas was issued to accompany the first part of the Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland. Many of the plates were engraved from Humboldt’s drawing and he supervised the hand-coloring for accuracy. The Aztec hieroglyphics on display were acquired by Humboldt in Mexico and deposited in Berlin.
Georg Heinrich Langsdorff. Bemerkungen auf einer Reise um die Welt in den Jahren 1803 bis 1807
Frankfurt am Main: 1812
Georg Heinrich Langsdorff (1774–1852) visited Japan during part of the Kruzenshtern expedition which circumnavigated the globe. Also on board the expedition was Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, the Russian ambassador to Japan. A goal of the journey was to establish stronger economic ties between Japan and Russia. The sketches displayed here depict how the explorers perceived and portrayed everyday life in Japan. The picture that the volume is open to features a reproduction of a Japanese woodcut. The Europeans were interested in showing the Japanese style of this art form to audiences back home. The picture depicts a doctor making medicine with a mortar.
Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff. A sketch of Chinese history, ancient and modern: comprising a retrospect of the foreign intercourse and trade with China
London: 1834
Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (b. 1803 Pyritz, Prussia, d. 1851 Hong Kong), a German Protestant missionary in Asia Pacific, was pioneering in many ways. He was among the earliest Protestant missionaries to reach Thailand and Korea. While in China, he was one of the first Protestant missionaries to adopt a Chinese style of clothing. Gützlaff wrote a number of influential books about Asia that extended beyond the topics of his missionary endeavors. During the First Opium War, Gützlaff worked as an interpreter for British diplomats. He also had a keen eye for economics. The selections from the present volume show Gützlaff’s interest in and work towards opening China to European markets.
Paul Langhans. Die Deutsche Samoa-insel Upolu
Gotha: 1900
This map was produced by the geographer and cartographer Paul Langhans (b. 1867 in Hamburg, d. 1952 in Gotha). He published many maps and atlases, including an atlas of German colonial holdings in 1897, and advanced ideas about an ethnocentric geopolitics in his journal Deutsche Erde (German Soil). During the Kaisserreich, Langhans was member of the antisemitic Deutschsoziale Reformpartei and edited their newsletter Antisemitische Montatsblatt (Antisemitic Monthly) from 1896. Langhans joined the NSDAP in 1931 and his efforts on behalf of the Nazi party earned him an award by the city of Gotha in 1940.