1769-1859

German Naturalist, Traveler and Statesman

Alexander von Humboldt gained fame for his adventurous scientific travels and highly accurate empirical researches throughout the Spanish colonies of South America. He wrote extensively on his findings and sought to establish a geographical understanding of nature.

Born in Berlin, Humboldt received an excellent education from private tutors as a boy and later at the great universities and academies of Germany. He mastered several languages including French, Spanish, Italian, and English and studied literature, history, philosophy, mathematics, and the sciences. He excelled in everything but was particularly fascinated with the life and earth sciences. He studied botany, geology, mineralogy, chemistry, electricity, and plant physiology, always mastering each subject he took up.

Alexander von Humboldt. (Archive Photos, Inc. Reproduced by permission.)

Tales of the eighteenth-century expeditions Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811), Captain James Cook (1728-1779), and others enthralled the...