Acquisition of the century for the Berlin State Library: Alexander von Humboldt's American travel diaries
Press release from 03/04/2014
With today's ceremony, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is celebrating the arrival of Alexander von Humboldt's American Travel Diaries at the Berlin State Library in the presence of Klaus Wowereit, Governing Mayor of Berlin, Monika Grütters, Minister of State for Culture, and Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation acquired the diaries at the end of 2013. The purchase was only possible thanks to the great support of public and private sponsors. The important historical writings can be admired by a select audience for the first time at today's ceremony. The keynote speech will be given by the Romance philologist Prof. Dr Ottmar Ette, under whose direction the diaries are being examined and scientifically analysed in a research project at the University of Potsdam in cooperation with the State Library. The entire Humboldt estate held by the State Library will be included in the project. A presentation of the diaries to the public is planned for 2014.
The diaries
Alexander von Humboldt's (1769-1859) diaries are, alongside his letters, the most important surviving original documents of his travels. The polymath noted down everything he had seen, worked out, measured and compared and the insights he had gained. He used these notes for his publications until the end of his life.
The American travel diaries consist of almost 4,000 pages in nine leather-bound volumes. They are densely written, partly in German and partly in French, and include Humboldt's own sketches. The notes were written during his great voyage of discovery through Central and South America between 1799 and 1804, but also contain some of Humboldt's older and more recent texts. To date, the diaries have only been edited incompletely. They cover the entire course of the five-year expedition to America, while Humboldt's published travelogues "Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent" (Paris, 1805-1839) only describe a third of it.
The American travel journals document Humboldt's years of scientific research into the knowledge gained in America. In addition to the direct travel notes, they contain elaborate literary pieces, additions, sketches, plans, explanations, clipped reports, references as well as letters and copies of letters. The writings allow deep insights into the processes that led to the development of science and field research in the context of (European) modernity.
Current research projects
Over the next three years, the University of Potsdam and the Berlin State Library will be conducting two projects to research Humboldt's American travel diaries. The closely linked projects are funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
On the one hand, under the direction of the internationally renowned Humboldt expert Ottmar Ette, the Chair of French and Spanish Literature at the University of Potsdam is researching the American travel diaries in close cooperation with the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. In particular, geological, geographical, linguistic and artistic issues are being investigated. The project ties in with other research activities of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Ibero-American Institute of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage.
On the other hand, the travel diaries, as well as Alexander von Humboldt's entire scientific estate, will be conserved, digitised and electronically indexed by the Berlin State Library. The research relevance of the diaries can only be fully realised in the context of the entire estate. The Staatsbibliothek also intends to include in this work the part of Humboldt's estate that is in Krakow due to the war.
Alexander von Humboldt in the Berlin State Library
The American travel diaries are an excellent addition to the existing holdings on Alexander von Humboldt in the Berlin State Library. They are unique sources on the scholar's research and working methods.
Of the approximately 1,600 bequests held in the Berlin State Library, that of Alexander von Humboldt is one of the most important sources on the history of European science. It contains documents from Humboldt's entire life, but primarily from the period from 1799 onwards. 50,000 sheets are contained in Humboldt's collections of material on various topics. Left in Humboldt's order, they reflect the scientist's wide-ranging areas of interest and his approach: folders labelled in his own hand contain notes, complete manuscripts, newspaper cuttings, letters and other material on topics such as slavery, ethnic groups, ocean currents, natural history, the history of the world view, mineralogy and the geography of plants.
Humboldt's estate was gradually incorporated into the State Library from 1868 onwards. It includes, for example, the papers on the statistics and geography of Mexico and Cuba that Humboldt himself left to the Royal Library in his will, as well as the manuscripts of the "Views of Nature" and the "Cosmos" and the so-called Kollektaneen, a collection of Humboldt's own and other people's documents. During the Second World War, the State Library's holdings were moved to various locations throughout Germany to protect them. The "Kollektaneen", which had been moved to south-west Germany, were returned to Berlin. Other parts of the estate, however, were moved to what was then Silesia and are now in the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow.
In addition to the bequest, there are other important documents by and about Humboldt in other holdings of the State Library, such as the bequests of Alexander Mendelssohn and Adelbert von Chamisso, as well as in the extensive autograph collections.
The State Library supplements the existing collection through targeted acquisitions. In 2011, for example, with the support of several sponsors, it succeeded in making a sensational acquisition of the researcher's address book, which was previously considered lost and completely unknown to scholars. On just over 200 pages, it contains around 900 names of people with whom he corresponded, as well as a series of notes. This notebook is being edited by the Berlin State Library in collaboration with the Alexander von Humboldt Research Centre of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Acquisition with the help of public and private sponsors
The "American Travel Diaries" were acquired by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation from one of Wilhelm von Humboldt's descendants. The purchase was made largely with public funding, which was provided to a very large extent by the following sponsors:
- Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
- Lotto Foundation Berlin
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research
However, the acquisition was only possible thanks to the considerable additional commitment of other sponsors:
- Kulturstiftung der Länder
- Würth Foundation
- Hermann Reemtsma Foundation
- Deutsche Bank AG
- Volkswagen Foundation
- Robert Bosch Foundation
- Gerda Henkel Foundation
- Fritz Thyssen Foundation
To ensure that the purchase price could be paid in full in 2013, the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation also contributed by pre-financing a large amount.
The seller will use the vast majority of the proceeds from the sale for the further preservation and maintenance of Tegel Palace, the burial ground and its park. A research library on the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt is also part of this publicly accessible ensemble, an intellectual-historical document of the life and work of the Humboldt brothers.
Further information
The magazine of the Kulturstiftung der Länder "Arsprototo " focusses on Alexander von Humboldt in issue 1/2014. It can be ordered by emailing abo(at)kulturstiftung(dot)de or calling 030 - 89 36 35 0 or by faxing 030 - 26 55 56 71.