1821-1865

German Explorer

Heinrich Barth spent most of his adult life exploring Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa in the company of James Richardson (1806-1851) and on his own. Originally sent to help gather information on the slave trade, Barth made some of the most reliable maps of North Africa and devoted a great deal of attention to studying the customs of the tribes he encountered in his travels.

Barth was initially assigned to assist James Richardson, an English explorer sent by a British religious society to learn about the North African slave trade. Wanting to make the expedition an international one, Richardson accepted the recommendation of Prussia's ambassador and asked Barth to join him. The expedition, which left in 1850, included Richardson, Barth, and the German geologist Adolf Overweg (1822-1852). Records suggest it may well have been the best-equipped and best-organized expedition to the Sahara launched up to...