1769 |
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt – known as Alexander – is born on 14 September at the family estate in Tegel, near Berlin, into a wealthy Prussian family – second son to Alexander Georg von Humboldt, Chamberlain to the Imperial Prince, and Marie Elizabeth de Colomb, of French and Scottish Protestant descent. His elder brother Wilhelm was born on 22 June 1767. The two brothers are brought up together at Tegel, and share the same tutors, the first of which is J.H. Campe, a keen geographer (and translator of Robinson Crusoe). |
1779 |
Father dies, and G.J.C. Kunth, a formative influence as tutor, is made trustee. The Humboldt brothers and tutor move to Berlin and meet, among others, the composer Mendelssohn’s family. |
1787 |
Begins studying at Frankfurt University, and is particularly enthusiastic about botany classes with Karl Ludwig Willdenow. |
1789 |
At Göttingen University studying literature, archaeology, electricity and the natural sciences. Sets off around Germany on the first of his travels. |
1790 |
Travels abroad with Georg Forster (1754–94) who had accompanied Captain Cook on his second voyage around the world, and whose Voyage round the World on the Resolution (London, 1777) was extremely influential on Humboldt. They visit Holland, England (where Humboldt meets Cavendish and Sir Joseph Banks in Soho Square) and France, where they spend a week in Paris helping to carry sand to build the Temple de la Liberté. Forster publishes his account of their journey, Ansichten vom Niederrhein von Brabant, Flanden, Holland, England und Frankreich, while Humboldt publishes his first work in botanical and chemical journals, as well as a mineralogical treatise. |
1791 |
Finishes his studies in Hamburg. Returns to Berlin and further botanical excursions with Willdenow. Joins the Freiberg School of Mines, where he studies with Abraham Werner, leader of the Neptunist school in geology. |
1792 |
Joins Department of Mines of the Prussian Government and travels around inspecting mines. |
1793 |
Appointed Superintendent of Mines in Franconia, and founds free miners’ school in Steben. Publishes Florae Fribergensis specimen. |
1794 |
Appointed Councillor of Mines. Meets Goethe in Jena. Publishes Aphorismen aus der Chemischen Physiologie de Pflanzen. |
1795 |
Travels to Switzerland and Italy. With his brother he begins his Galvanistic experiments. |
1796 |
Comes into his fortune with his mother’s death. Long estranged from her, however, he does not grieve. Retires from the Prussian mining administration and decides to fulfil his yearning for travel far abroad. In many senses his multidisciplinary studies up to 1796 can be seen as his preparations for a world tour. |
1797 |
Lives in Jena, studying astronomy, chemistry, botany and mineralogy, and often visits Goethe. His old tutor Kunth divides up family inheritance and Humboldt receives 312,000 French gold francs, or 90,000 thaler (German silver coin). Publishes a study of muscular irritations and travels to Vienna. Plans a trip to Brazil, and another with Lord Bristol to Egypt – both fail. Before leaving for Paris, he visits the Tyrolean Alps with the geologist Leopold Buch, where they spend the winter taking magnetic, topographical and meteorological measurements. |
1798 |
Back in Paris he is accepted on Captain Baudin’s world voyage – which is constantly delayed. Meets future travelling companion Aimé Bonpland (1773–1858), a doctor and botanist. They travel together to Marseille and wait in vain for a boat; then move on through Spain to Madrid. After meeting Charles IV at Aranjuez Humboldt is given special permission to explore the hinterlands of Spanish America. This was to be the first foreign expedition since La Condamine’s fateful trip (1735–44), and the last for many years, due to the independence wars. |
1799 |
On 5 June Humboldt and Bonpland leave La Coruña on the corvette Pizarro. Reach Tenerife on 19 June, and on 21 June climb the Teide peak. Reach Cumaná on 16 July where they stay for several months, taking short excursions to the Araya peninsula, the Chaima Indian missions, the Caripe convent and the Guácharo caves. Leave for Caracas on 18 November. |
1800 |
Stay in Caracas until 7 February when they set off for the Orinoco. Reach San Fernando across the llanos on 27 March. Ascend the Apure river to the cataracts and arrive at San Fernando de Atabapo on 24 April. After entering the Temi river they cross land at Pimichín (6 May) and reach the Casiquiare on 12 May. Drifting downstream to the Orinoco they reach Angostura (today Ciudad Bolívar) on 13 June. Altogether they spend seventy-five days on the rivers, covering 2,250 kilometres. Recover from malaria and leave for New Barcelona on 10 July. Arrive back in Cumaná and leave for Cuba on 24 November, arriving at Havana on 19 December. |
1801 |
Leave Cuba on 5 March after excursions around Havana. Reach Cartagena on 30 March, ascend Magdalena river to Honda, arriving at Bogotá on 6 July, where they meet Spain’s greatest botanist José Celestino Mutis (1732–1808). Finally leave Bogotá on 8 September to rejoin Captain Baudin by travelling over land to Quito. |
1802 |
Arrive at Quito on 6 January and stay until 9 June. Humboldt tries to climb Chimborazo and reaches 19,700 feet, the world record at the time. Begins to take notes for Essai sur la géographie des plantes. Arrive in Lima on 2 September to learn that Captain Baudin has sailed round the Cape of Good Hope. |
1803 |
Leave Guayaquil for Acapulco on 3 January, arriving there on 15 February and in Mexico City on 11 March, where they stay until 13 May. In Mexico Humboldt meets the viceroy, and visits mining areas of Guanajuato. Climbs the Jorulla volcano on 19 October. |
1804 |
Leave Veracruz for Cuba on 7 January, remaining there until 29 April; this visit supplying Humboldt with the material for his Essai politique sur l’île de Cuba. Reach Philadelphia on 20 May. Humboldt befriends President Thomas Jefferson in Washington. Finally leave the New World on 30 June, arriving in Bordeaux on 3 August and in Paris on 25 August. Humboldt meets Bolivar and Napoleon (who dislikes him and thinks him a Prussian spy) in Paris, and befriends the young scientist Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac (1778-1850). |
1805 |
Humboldt begins work on his South American travels. Visits his brother Wilhelm in Rome and climbs Vesuvius. After nine years’ absence he returns to Berlin and is nominated Court Chamberlain to the Prussian King, Friedrich Wilhelm III. |
1807–27 |
Lives on and off in Paris, publishing, at his own expense, thirty folio and quarto volumes Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent, fait en 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804. (The last volume is published in 1834.) In 1808 he publishes simultaneously in French and German his own favourite (and most popular) book, Ansichten der Natur. Publishes Essai politique sur le royaume de la Nouvelle-Espagne in 1811. Leaves Paris in 1827 to settle in Berlin. Begins the public lectures that would culminate in Kosmos. |
1829 |
Sets off on his last great journey, to Russia and Central Asia. |
1835 |
His brother Wilhelm dies. |
1840 |
Appointed Councillor of State by new Prussian King, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. |
1843 |
Publishes his Asian travel book, also in French, Recherches sur les chaînes de montagnes et la climatologie comparée, in three volumes. |
1845 |
Starts to publish Kosmos in German (the last volume of which appeared posthumously in 1862). |
1859 |
Dies on 6 May. Buried in family vault at Tegel with his brother and sister-in-law. |