We're familiar with Humboldt squid, and Humboldt penguins who swim in the Humboldt current off the coast of Peru. In the nineteenth century, German naturalist, explorer, artist, writer, scientist and philanthropist Alexander von Humboldt creates an amazing legacy.
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Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769 – 1859) is active during the Romantic period in Germany. His work rouses popular interest in nature and the environment.
On the forefront of geographic science as one of the first theorists of continental drift, Humboldt travels throughout the Americas 1799 to 1804, studying botany, biology, geography and culture. A prolific artist, he sketches animals, birds, plants and coasts.
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Considered the father of ecology and father of environmentalism, Humboldt is the first to bring accurate descriptions of South America to the rest of the world. Political leader Simón Bolívar writes
"The real discoverer of South America was Humboldt, since his work was more useful for our people than the work of all conquerors".
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Plants and animals are named for him, include a unique South American hummingbird, butterfly, oak and orchid. Geographic features bearing his name include Humboldt Bay in California, Humboldt Mountains of Antarctica and the Humboldt Glacier in Greenland.
Humboldt is well known in the German social circles. Contemporaries such as German poet Wolfgang Goethe and playwright philosopher Friedrich Schiller praise his projects. Czar Nicholas I invites him to Russia. German Emperor Friedrich Wilhelm III sponsors his work.
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Thomas Jefferson called him "the most important scientist ... I have met." Cuban scholar José de la Luz y Caballero wrote, "Columbus gave Europe a New World; Humboldt made it known in its physical, material, intellectual, and moral aspects".
Two asteroids and rare mineral humboldtine are also named for Alexander von Humboldt. The Humboldt current is crucial to ecosystem stability. Cold and shallow, the current moves slowly compared to others. It's a rich source of nutrients and fish for the penguins.
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Alexander and his brother, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, co-found Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany in 1810. A public research facility, it's the oldest of the four universities in Berlin.
Through his multi-volume work Kosmos, Humboldt resurrects the word "cosmos" from the Greek and wants to unify the different branches of scientific culture and knowledge. The books convey a holistic perception of the universe as one interacting entity.
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Humboldt's concepts of ecology led the way to environmentalism and further discovery. In 1800 and 1831, he described scientifically, on the basis of observations generated during his travels, local impacts of development causing human-induced climate change.
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