Heavily equipped with timers, barometers, thermometers, telescopes, sextants, compasses, magnetometers, Humboldt and Bonpland described, drew and measured everything they encountered. He didn’t manage to reach the summit, but when he arrived at more than 20.000 feet high, he held the altitude record of his time. In 1802 he tried to climb the Chimborazo volcano in Ecuador. Humboldt totally immersed himself in this new environment, diving into a whole new sensory experience. They gathered observations and plant specimen while they were climbing volcanoes and paddling in white water. « Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland at the foot of the Chimborazo volcano », painting by Friedrich Georg Weitsch, 1806įrom amazon jungles to Andes’ summits, the duo traveled across Latin America for 5 years.

The king of Spain had granted the two scientists a special authorization to explore the interior of the continent. He said: « the only profession that combines science, emotion and adventure is that of an explorer naturalist. »Īt the age of 30, he left Europe in 1799 with the French botanist Aimé Bonpland to go to Central and South America. Humboldt became quickly bored with his work as mine assessor.

He was also the most famous and influential scientist of his time.Īs a young man, he was very inspired by Georg Forster, the naturalist who embarked with the Captain Cook for his second expedition around the globe. Humboldt was a fearless explorer driven by a visionary conception of nature. The Invention of Nature is a gripping book recounting the incredible life of this XIXth century naturalist. Nonetheless, Humboldt is their founding father. » – The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulfīorn in 1769 (dead in 1859), Humboldt is the forgotten father of the ecological and environmental movement.

« Environmentalists, ecologists and nature writers today remain firmly rooted in Humboldt’s vision – although many have never heard of him. They usually picture a whole ecosystem along with its scientific data with a great sense of visual synthesis. Have you ever heard about Alexander Von Humboldt ? If his name doesn’t ring a bell, you might have come across one of his beautiful landscape diagrams.

The invention of nature humboldt