I have omitted to state above the extreme satisfaction I have received from Baron Humboldt’s communications. The treasures of information which he possesses are inestimable...

Thomas Jefferson to Caspar Wistar
June 7, 1804

This country that stretches to the west of the mountains presents a vast area to conquer for science!

Humboldt to William Thornton
June 20, 1804

The Alexander von Humboldt Digital Library Project
Participating Institutions:
Humboldt-Forschungsstelle, Landesbibliothek Eutin, Fachhochschule Offenburg, and the University of Kansas

April 28, 1804

Vincent Gray, Consul of the United States in Cuba, to Secretary of State James Madison:

You will receive a letter from the Governor by this opportunity, put under the care of Baron Humboldt, who from the Character and pursuits I took leave to recommend to your attention and protection while in the U[nited] States, from belief that you would be much gratified by being personally acquainted with him.
(Fries, “Besuch,” 146)

May 8, 1804

. . . he [Humboldt] will have it in his power to give you much useful information relative to the country adjoining.
(Friis, “Besuch,” p. 146)

May 24, 1804

Upon arrival in Philadelphia from Cuba, Humboldt describes his Travels to Thomas Jefferson (1). He concludes:

. . . I could not resist the moral obligation to see the United States and enjoy the consoling aspects of a people who understand the precious gift of Liberty. I wish it were possible for me to present my personal respects and admiration to you and to know a magistrate and philosopher whose cares embrace two continents!
(Originally in French, de Terra, "Correspondence", pp. 787–788)

Peale in his Diary:

I had brought [along] sundry Profiles of the Baron . . . these I distributed to such persons I thought they would be most acceptable with.
(Selected Papers, II: 2, p. 699)

Jefferson to Humboldt:

Sir: I received last night your favor of the 24th, and offer you my congratulations on your arrival in good health after a tour in the course of which you have been exposed to so many hardships and hazards. [T]he countries you have visited are of those least known and most interesting, and a lively desire will be felt generally to receive information you will be able to give. [N]o one will feel it more strongly than myself, because one perhaps views this new World with more partial hopes of its exhibiting an ameliorated state of the human condition.
(de Terra, "Correspondence", p. 788)

The painter and museum director Charles Willson Peale, acting as host for Humboldt in Philadelphia, also accompanies Humboldt to Washington and comments in his diary:

The Baron spoke English very well, in the German dialect. Here I shall take notice that he possessed a surprising fluency of Speech, & it was amusing to hear him Speak English, French and the Spanish Languages, mixing them together in rapid Speech. He is very communicative and possesses a surprising fund of knowledge, in botany mineralogy astron[o]my Philosophy and Natural History: with a liberal Education, he has been collecting information from learned men of a[l]most all quarters of the world; for he has been travelling ever since he was 11 years of age and never lived in any one place more than 6 months together, as he informed us.
(Selected Papers, p. 683)

[The Baron] has traveled through a great part of South America, that he brought a number of astronomical instruments with him which was carr[i]ed by about 30 mules. It is said that he has discovered errors of two degrees in the latitudes of some parts of that Country—that he was higher up the mountain Chimb[orazo] than any other man ever went.
(Selected Papers, pp. 684–685)

Peale comments in his diary:

The Baron came to my room & told me that he had been conversing with the President about me & my Museum, that he wondered that the Government did not secure it by a purchase [of] it—for such opportunities of getting so complete collections of natural subjects seldom occurred. The president repl[i]ed that it was his ardent wish and he hoped that the period was not far distant & he thought that each of the States would contribute means and thus it might be made a National Museum.
(Selected Papers II:2, p. 691 and 694)

Margaret Bayard Smith, wife of Samuel Harrison Smith, publisher of Washington’s National Intelligencer, recalls:

Soon after the Baron’s arrival on our shores, he hastened to Washington, and, during his visit to our city, passed many hours of every day with Mr. Jefferson. . . . One evening he called about twilight and being shown into the drawing room without being announced, he found Mr. Jefferson seated on the floor, surrounded by half a dozen of his little grandchildren so eagerly and noisily engaged in a game of romps that for some moments his entrance was not perceived. When his presence was discovered Mr. Jefferson rose up and shaking hands with him, said, “you have found me playing the fool Baron, but I am sure that to you I need make no apology.”
(The First Fourty Years. pp. 395-396)

June 5, 1804

. . . We have lately had a great treat in the company of a charming Prussian Baron von Humboldt. All the ladies say they are in love with him, notwithstanding his want of personal charms. He is the most polite, modest, well-informed and interesting traveller we have ever met, and is much pleased with America. He sails in a few days for France with his companions, and is going to publish an account of his travels in South America, where he lived five years, proposing to return here again. He had with him a train of philosophers, who, though clever and entertaining, did not compare with the Baron.
(Friis, “Visit,” pp. 23–24; Friis, “Besuch ,” p. 175)

Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury, writes in a personal letter:

I have received an exquisite intellectual treat from Baron Humboldt Prussian traveller, who is on his return from Peru and Mexico, where he travelled five years, and from which he has brought a mass of natural, philosophical, and political information which will render the geography, productions, and statistics of th[ose] countr[ies] better known than those of most European countries. We all consider him a very extraordinary man, and his travels, which he intends publishing on his return to Europe, will I think, rank above any other production of the kind. I am not apt to be easily pleased, and he was not particularly prepossessing to my taste, for he speaks . . . twice as fast as anybody I know, German, French, Spanish, and English all together . . . I must acknowledge, in order to account for my enthusiasm, that he was surrounded with maps, statements, &c all new to me and several of which he has liberally permitted us to transcribe. (2)
(Friis, “Visit,” p. 26; Friis, “Besuch,” p. 176)

I have omitted to state above the extreme satisfaction I have received from Baron Humboldt’s communications. The treasures of information which he possesses are inestimable and fill us with impatience for their appearance in print.
(Friis, “Visit,” pp. 26–27; Friis “Besuch,” p. 177)

Tho[ma]s Jefferson asks leave to observe to Baron de Humboldt that the question of limits of Louisiana between Spain & the U.S. is this, they claim to hold to the river Mexicana or Sabine & from the head of that Northwardly along the heads of the waters of the Missi[ssipp]i to the head of the Red river & so on. We claim to the North river from its mouth to the source either of its Eastern or Western branch, thence to the head of Red river & so on. Can the Baron inform me what population may be between these lines of white, red or black people? And whether any & and what mines are within them? The information will be thankfully received. He tenders him his respectful salutations.
(Moheit, p. 296; Friis “Besuch,” p. 178)

The president wishes to have information about the population, the area, and the mineral resources of the Spanish provinces ceded, assuming that Rio Brave de Norte [Rio Grande] should be the border of Louisiana?The king of Spain would cede in this case 2/3 of the immense adminstrative area of Saint Louis Potosi; he would lose a terrain of 11,756 leagues [ . . .]; he would lose

the entire province of Texas, 7,006 leagues;
half of the province of Nuevo Santander, 1,900 leagues;
two-thirds of the province of Cohahuila, 2,850 leagues;

the entirety of this terrain equals 2/3 of the area of France. But the political value of this land, considering it before the joining of Louisiana to the United States, is almost nil. . . The picture of the 11,756 leagues that I am tracing is not bright, but let’s take into account that this is a virgin and uninhabited land. . . .

Margaret Bayard Smith:

Another time [Humboldt called in the] morning and was taken into the Cabinet; as he sat by the table, among newspapers that were scattered about, he perceived one that was always filled with the most virulent abuse of Mr. Jefferson, calumnies the most offensive, personal as well as political. “Why are these libels allowed?” asked the Baron taking up the paper, “Why is not this libelous journal suppressed, or its Editor at least, fined and imprisoned?” Mr. Jefferson smiled, saying, “Put that paper in your pocket Baron, and should you hear the reality of our liberty, the freedom of our press, questioned, show this paper, and tell where you found it.” (4)
(The First Forty Years, pp. 395-397)

June 10, 1804

Margaret Bayard Smith in a private letter:

. . . a charming man, and we have had the singular pleasure of enjoying a great deal of his company. His hours have been full occupied by attentions which I have no doubt will make some impression on his heart. An enlightened mind has already made him an American, and we are not without hopes, that after having scratched his curiosity with travel he will spend the remainder of his days in the United States. This will be a great acquisition . . .
(Friis, “Visit,” p. 30; Friis “Besuch,” p. 179)

June 11, 1804

Jefferson to Isaac Briggs:

. . . but that the idea [determining the longitude by the observation of the moon] was not new, that even De la Caille had proposed it and De la Lande had given all explanations necessary for it, I think he [Humboldt] said in his 3rd vol. I have not the book here but presume you can consult it in Philadelphia . . .
(Friis “Visit,” p. 32; “Besuch,” p. 180)

 

Jefferson to William Dunbar:

While Capt Lewis’s mission was preparing . . . I knew that a thousand accidents might happen to that [chronometer] in such a journey as his, & thus deprive us of the principal object of the expedition, to wit, the ascertaining the geography of that river, I sat myself to consider whether in making observations at land . . . Before [Brigg’s] confirmation of the idea however, Capt. Lewis was gone. In conversation afterwards with Baron Humboldt, he observed that the idea was correct, but not new & that I would find it in the 3rd vol. of Delalande.
(May 25, 1805, Jackson, pp. 244–245)

Charles Willson Peale’s autobiography:

After they arrived at Philad[elphi]a. And meeting again with the Baron [I] painted a Portrait of him to be placed in the Museum. . . . The portrait however m[e]t with the approbation of every one that had seen it and the Baron Humbold[t].
(Selected Papers, V, p. 333)

. . . I feel I will return to this beautiful country in a few years. The path from the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean will then be open. . . .

. . . Through the same courier, I entreated Mr. Gallatin to remember my maps of Mexico.
(Moheit, p. 298)

Humboldt to the Architect William Thornton
(originally in French):

This abominable law that permits the importation of Negroes in South Carolina [until 1808] is a disgrace for a state in which I know many level-headed people to live. Conforming to the only course of action dictated by humanity, undoubtedly less cotton will be exported at first. But alas! How I detest this politics that measures and evaluates the public welfare simply according to the value of its exports. The wealth of nations is like the wealth of individuals. It is only secondary to our welfare. Before one is free, one must be just, and without justice there is no lasting prosperity.
(Moheit, pp. 299–300)

William Thornton (1930)
George B. Mathews, after Gilbert Stuart
(Office of Architects web site)

The Bearer hereof Baron Humboldt a subject of His Prussian Majesty and Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Prussia with his Secretary Mr. Bonpland, being about to return from the United States, with forty boxes of plants and other collections relating to Natural History, all his own property, by way of France to Berlin, from an expedition into South America and Mexico, undertaken at his own expen[s]e for the improvement of Natural History.
(Moheit, p. 302)

My departure is scheduled for tomorrow, and it shows me quite clearly that I achieved the purpose of my visit. I have had the good fortune to see the first Magistrate of this great republic living with the simplicity of a philosopher who received me with that profound kindness that makes for a lasting friendship.
(de Terra, II, p. 789)

Captain Lewis undertook this admirable journey with the support of Mr. Jefferson, who has again won the gratitude of all scholars everywhere for this important service to science.
(Humboldt, Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, originally in French)

Jefferson to Humboldt:

. . . You will find it inconceivable that Lewis’s journey to the Pacific should not yet have appeared, nor is it in my power to tell you the reason. The measures taken by his surviving companion Clark for the publication, have not answered our wishes in point of dispatch. I think however, from what I have heard, that the main journal will be out within a few weeks in 2 vols. 8º. These I will take care to send you with the tobacco seed you desired, if it will be possible to escape the thousand ships of our enemies spread over the ocean. The botanical & zoological discoveries of Lewis will probably experience greater delay, and become known to the world thro[ugh] other channels before that volume will be ready. The Atlas, I believe, waits on the leisure of the engraver. (5)
(de Terra, p. 794)

Fiedler, Horst / Ulrike Leitner. Alexander von Humboldts Schriften. Bibliographie der selbständig erschienenen Werke. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2000

Friis, Hermann R. “Baron Alexander von Humboldt’s Visit to Washington,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society 44 (1963): 1–35.

Friis, Hermann R. “Alexander von Humboldts Besuch in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika,” Joachim H. Schultze (ed.), Alexander von Humboldt: Studien zu seiner universalen Geisteshaltung. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1959. Pp. 142–195

Humboldt, Alexander von. Essai politique sur le Royaume de Nouvelle Espagne. Paris: F. Schoell, 1811.
I: 317.

Jackson, Donald Dean. Letters of the Lewis and Clark Expedition with Related Documents. 1783-1854. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1962.

Large, Arlen J. “The Humboldt Connection,” We Procceed On,” (1990): 4–12.

Miller, Lillian B. (editor). The Selected Papers of Charles Willson Peale and His Family. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983 and 1989. Vols . II: 2 and V.

Moheit, Ulrike (ed.). Alexander von Humboldt: Briefe aus Amerika. 1799–1804. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993.

Schwarz, Ingo. “From Alexander von Humboldt’s Correspondence with Thomas Jefferson and Albert Gallatin,” Berliner Manuskripte zur Alexander-vonHumboldt-Forschung 2 (1991): 1–20.

Schwarz, Ingo. ”Shelter for a Reasonable Freedom.’ Aspects of Alexander von Humboldt’s Relation to the United States of America,” Debate y Perspectivas 1 (2000): 169–182.

Schwarz, Ingo. “Alexander von Humboldt — Socio-political Views of the Americas,” Ottmar Ette and Walther L. Bernecker (eds.), Ansichten Amerikas. Neuere Studien zu Alexander von Humboldt. Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert Verlag, 2001.

Smith, Margaret Bayard [Mrs. Samuel Harrison Smith]. The First Forty Years of Washington Society, ed. by Gaillard Hunt. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1906.

Terra, Helmut de. Humboldt: The Life and Times of Alexander von Humboldt. 1769–1859. New York: Knopf, 1955.

Terra, Helmut de. “Alexander von Humboldt’s Correspondence with Thomas Jefferson,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 103 (1959): 783–806.

Wassermann, Felix M.“Six Unpublished Letters of Alexander von Humboldt to Thomas Jefferson,” The Germanic Review 29 ( 1954): 191–200.

1. . . . Over the past five years we traveled across New Andalusia, the Carib and Chaimas Indian territories, the provinces of Barcelona, Caracas, Varinas, and all of
Guy[a]na. We covered almost 1000 nautical miles on the Orinoco by canoe, navigated the Guaviare and the Rio Negro, crossed for three days the imposing rapids of Maypure and Atures and determined by our chronometers and the sata[l]ites of Jupiter the exact position of the Cassiquiare, a tributary of the Orinoco which connects with the Amazon and by which we advanced to the borders of larger Para [Brazil]. There in the wilderness and ancient forests of the Cassiquiare, at 2º n.lat., we encountered rocks covered with hieroglyphs which indicated to us that this remote land now populated by naked Indians living scattered as cannibals, was at one remote period the home of civilized peoples. Upon returning from the Rio Negro to Cumana we proceeded to the island of Cuba, thence to the Rio Sissu, Carthagena, and Santa Fé [Bogotá], We traversed the kingdom of New Granada, Popayan, and Pasto. For a year we pursued our studies in the Andes of Quito carrying our instruments to a height of 3,036 toises on Chimborazo where we climbed 500 toises higher than any other human being before us. We proceeded to Loxa to study the chinchona trees in Jaen province and continued to the Amazon. At Lima we observed the transit of Mercury and by sailing from there via Guyaquil for Acapulco we managed to spend one year in New Spain which offered us a tremendous field of studies.
(de Terra, "Correspondence", pp. 787-788, originally in French). Back

4. William Armistead Burwell, Jefferson’s Private Secretary, in His Diary, writes a slightly different account:

Mr. J[efferson] appeared delighted with H[umboldt]& said he was the most scientific man of his age he had ever seen, one morning when we assembled at Breakfast, Mr. J[efferson] entered with an Extract from a Newspaper filled with the greatest personal abuse of himself, he presented it to the Baron, with a request he would deposit in a Museum in Europe to show how little mischief flowed from the freedom of the Press when that notwithstanding innumerable pieces of similar nature issued daily from the Press his Administration has never been more popular. I think it probable the B[aron] complied with his request. . . Back
(Friis, “Visit,” p. 35; Friis, “Besuch” p. 181)