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Eduard Hildebrandt
Humboldt in His Study
1856
chromolithograph
Alexander Dallas Bache, head of the U.S. Coastal Survey and grandson of Benjamin Franklin, first met Humboldt in 1837. Humboldt wrote a letter of support for Bache when the government threatened to cut survey funding; he also inscribed this print for the American scientist. Bache was involved in the founding of the Smithsonian, the lone scientist on the first Board of Regents. Fellow oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury summed up their mutual respect for Humboldt, stating, "Baron Humboldt was among scientists what our own Washington was among statesmen, upright and just, with attributes grand and lofty in their intellectual proportions." Humboldt, he said, "used the power they gave him among men, not for self, but for the advancement of knowledge."
George Glazer Gallery, NY |