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• Sculptor: Gustaf Blaeser
• Date: 1869
• Medium & size: Bronze bust (5 feet), granite pedestal (9 feet).
• Location: Central Park West at 77th Street, just east of the Museum of Natural History.

In 1799, thirty-year-old Alexander von Humboldt set out with Aimé Bonpland on the first meticulous and extensive scientific exploration of Central and South America. On their five-year journey they faced ravenous insects, typhoid fever, dysentery, blizzards, floods, thunderstorms, earthquakes, jaguars, and fish with enough voltage to kill a horse. They gathered some 60,000 specimens of rocks and plants while taking copious notes on climate, animals, volcanoes, the earth’s magnetism, and ocean currents. Their expedition has been described as the scientific discovery of America. Publishing the results took twenty years. You can judge their importance by the fact that the thirty-volume set of results was one of the few works Charles Darwin packed when he sailed with the Beagle in 1831.

Humboldt was one of those rare men who was fascinated by the trees as well as the forest. He collected masses of quantitative data, but he also integrated his findings in biology, geology, and meteorology. It made him one of the most famous scientists and intellectuals of the nineteenth century – a familiar face in Paris, Berlin, and London.

Decades after the Latin American expedition, Humboldt began the massive Cosmos, in which he attempted to create an integrated view of all of nature. Published in five volumes starting in 1845, Cosmos became one of the most widely read science books ever written. The view of the universe that Humboldt sets out may well have influenced Calvert Vaux as he worked on the sculptural program on Bethesda Terrace. (See Sarah Cedar Miller, Central Park: An American Masterpiece, pp. 42-44. )

From Cosmos:

Man cannot have an effect on nature, cannot adopt any of her forces, if he does not know the natural laws in terms of measurement and numerical relations. Here also lies the strength of the natural intelligence, which increases and decreases according to such knowledge. Knowledge and comprehension are the joy and justification of humanity; they are parts of the national wealth, often a replacement for those materials that nature has all too sparsely dispensed. Those very peoples who are behind in general industrial activity, in application of mechanics and technical chemistry, in careful selection and processing of natural materials, such that regard for such enterprise does not permeate all classes, will inevitably decline in prosperity; all the more so where neighboring states, in which science and the industrial arts have an active interrelationship, progress with youthful vigor.”

Humboldt, Cosmos, 1845-1862

This bust of Humboldt was unveiled in 1869, for the 100th anniversary of Humboldt’s birth. It originally sat near Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, the Park’s most prominent entrance. Aside from acknowledging Humboldt’s importance, that location put him near the proposed site of a natural-history museum that the Board of Commissioners was planning to install in the nearby Arsenal. But that institution eventually got spanking new quarters uptown.

In 1981, Humboldt was moved to Central Park West at 77th Street: he now faces the American Museum of Natural History.

More

• For a very readable description of Humboldt’s expedition to South America, see David McCullough, “Journey to the Top of the World,” Ch. 1 in Brave Companions: Portraits in History.
• On his way home in 1804, Humboldt discussed his Latin American expedition with President Thomas Jefferson, who had just dispatched the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
• Bolivar asserted, “Humboldt has done more good for America than all her conquerors.”
• For more on Central Park in the 1850s-1870s, see my book Central Park: The Early Years.
• For early images of Central Park, see the pages on this site for through 1860, 1861-1865, and 1866-1870.
• In Getting More Enjoyment from Sculpture You Love, I demonstrate a method for looking at sculptures in detail, in depth, and on your own. Learn to enjoy your favorite sculptures more, and find new favorites. Available on Amazon in print and Kindle formats. More here.
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