Existing comment:
Letter from Balduin Möllhausen to William Wilson Corcoran
June 1, 1859
ink on paper
When Humboldt died in May 1859, he left behind a voluminous estate: more than 10,000 books, his travel diaries, maps, specimens, art collection, and personal effects. His valet Johann Seifert inherited everything and sought to place Humboldt's legacy with the Smithsonian. Seifert's son-in-law, explorer Balduin Möllhausen, wrote letters to the Smithsonian secretary Joseph Henry and Smithsonian regent William Wilson Corcoran. Corcoran's letter is on view
here, and reads in part:
As it is our warmest wish, that the inheritance of Alexander von Humboldt shall not become scattered all over the world by auction; as we wish to see it placed in a way worthy of his memory, and that every member of human society may have a chance of looking with veneration upon things that have surrounded one of the greatest and best men of past and coming centuries, during lifetime and as further I hold proofs in my hands, that the illustrious deceased himself would consent with all his heart to: "His inheritance becoming the property of the United States of America."
Although this did not come to pass, the diversity of ideas and disciplines pursued at the Smithsonian is a reflection of Humboldt's interests and pursuits -- his endless curiosity and enduring pursuit of connections.
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, W. W. Corcoran Papers |