The Invention of Nature

by Andrea Wulf

  100 readership Cosmos: By 1850 the authorized translation of the first and second volumes of Cosmos were in the seventh and eighth editions, while the subsequent volumes never went beyond the first edition, Fiedler and Leitner 2000, pp.409–10.

  101 AH and volume 5: AH Kosmos 1862, vol.5; Werner 2004, p.182ff.

  102 Schlagintweit brothers to AH: Hermann and Robert Schlagintweit, Berlin, June 1857, Beck 1959, pp.267–8.

  103 AH’s essay on Himalaya: This was his 1820 essay ‘Sur la inférieure des neiges perpétuelles dans les montagnes de l’Himalaya et les regions équatoriales’.

  104 ‘unmercifully tormented’: AH to Julius Fröbel, 11 January 1858, AH Letters USA 2004, p.435.

  105 almost 5,000 letters: Varnhagen, 18 February 1858, AH Varnhagen Letters 1860, p.307.

  106 ‘formal and business-like’: AH to Friedrich Althaus, 30 July 1856, AH Althaus Memoirs 1861, p.137; AH to Edward Young, 3 June 1855, AH Letters USA 2004, p.347.

  107 Washington’s birthday: Joseph Albert Wright to State Department, 7 May 1859, Hamel et al. 2003, p.249; Bayard Taylor, 1859, Taylor 1860, p.473.

  108 ‘Labouring under extreme’: Humboldt’s announcement, 15 March 1859, Irving 1864, vol.4, p.256.

  109 AH dispatched Cosmos: AH to Johann Georg von Cotta, 19 April 1859, AH Cotta Letters 2009, p.41; Fiedler and Leitner 2000, p.391.

  110 AH health bulletin: Bayard Taylor, May 1859, Taylor 1860, pp.477–8.

  111 ‘How glorious these’: AH to Hedemann and Gabriele von Bülow, 6 May 1859; Anna von Sydow, May 1859, Beck 1959, pp.424, 426; Bayard Taylor, May 1859, Taylor 1860, p.479.

  112 news of AH’s death: For Europe and US see later endnotes; for the rest of the world, for example: Estrella de Panama, 15 June 1859; El Comercio, Lima, 28 June 1859; Graham Town Journal, South Africa, 23 July 1859.

  113 ‘The great, good and’: Joseph Albert Wright to US State Department, 7 May 1859, Hamel et al. 2003, p.248.

  114 ‘Berlin is plunged’: Morning Post, 9 May 1859.

  115 Darwin manuscript Origin: Darwin to John Murray, 6 May 1859, Darwin Correspondence, vol.7, p.295.

  116 ‘Alexander von Humboldt is dead’: The Times, 9 May 1859; see also Morning Post, 9 May 1859; Daily News, 9 May 1859; Standard, 9 May 1859.

  117 Church, AH and Heart of Andes: Kelly 1989, p.48ff.; Avery 1993, pp.12ff., 17, 26, 33–6; Sachs 2006, p.99ff.; Baron 2005, p.11ff.

  118 Church following AH: Baron 2005, p.11ff.; Avery 1993, pp.17, 26.

  119 ‘artistic Humboldt of’: New York Times, 17 March 1863; this related to Church’s painting Cotopaxi.

  120 ‘scenery which delighted’: Frederic Edwin Church to Bayard Taylor, 9 May 1859, Gould 1989, p.95.

  121 AH funeral: Bierman and Schwarz 1999a, p.196; Bierman and Schwarz 1999b, p.471; Bayard Taylor, May 1859, Taylor 1860, p.479.

  122 news reached US: North American and United States Gazette, Daily Cleveland Herald, Boston Daily Advertiser, Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, New York Times, all on 19 May 1859.

  123 ‘lost a friend’: Church to Bayard Taylor, 13 June 1859, in Avery 1993, p.39.

  124 ‘from the labors’: Louis Agassiz, Boston Daily Advertiser, 26 May 1859.

  125 ‘most remarkable’: Daily Cleveland Herald, 19 May 1859; see also Boston Daily Advertiser, 19 May 1859; Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, 19 May 1859; North American and United States Gazette, 19 May 1859.

  126 ‘age of Humboldt’: Boston Daily Advertiser, 19 May 1859.

  127 ‘greatest scientific traveller’: Darwin to Joseph Hooker, 6 August 1881, Darwin 1911, vol.2, p.403.

  128 ‘April 3rd 1882 finished’: Darwin’s copy of AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.3, endpapers, CUL.

  129 scattered the ‘seeds’: Du Bois, 3 August 1883, AH du Bois-Reymond Letters 1997, p.201.

  130 AH’s ideas in art and literature: For Walt Whitman and AH, see Walls 2009, pp.279–83 and Clark and Lubrich 2012, p.20; for Verne and AH, see Schifko 2010; for others see Clark and Lubrich 2012, pp.4–5, 246, 264–5, 282–3.

  131 ‘the greatest man since’: Friedrich Wilhelm IV quoted in Bayard Taylor 1860, p.xi.

  Chapter 21: Man and Nature

  1 Marsh arrived in Vermont: Marsh to Caroline Estcourt, 3 June 1859, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.410.

  2 Humboldt Commemorations, 2 June 1859: Journal of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, vol.1, no.8, October 1859, pp.225–46; for Marsh’s membership, see vol.1, no.1, January 1859, p.iii.

  3 ‘dullest owl in’: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 26 August 1859, UVM.

  4 Marsh’s finances: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 25 April 1859; Marsh to Francis Lieber, May 1860, Marsh 1888, vol.1, pp.405–6, 417; Lowenthal 2003, p.154ff.

  5 Marsh’s work summer 1859: Lowenthal 2003, p.199.

  6 ‘like an escaped convict’: Marsh to Caroline Marsh, 26 July 1859, ibid.

  7 ‘with all my might’: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 26 August 1859, UVM.

  8 Marsh’s AH books: Lowenthal 2003, p.64; Marsh owned the 1849 German edition of the extended Views of Nature, several volumes of Cosmos (also in German) as well as a biography and other books about Humboldt. He had also read Personal Narrative, see Marsh 1892 pp.333–4; Marsh 1864, pp.91, 176.

  9 ‘done more to extend’: Marsh, ‘Speech of Mr. Marsh, of Vermont, on the Bill for Establishing The Smithsonian Institution, Delivered in the House of Representatives’, 22 April 1846, Marsh 1846.

  10 ‘infinite superiority’: Ibid.; for Germans and German books: Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.90–1, 100, 103; Lowenthal 2003, p.90

  11 sister-in-law’s husband: Caroline Marsh to Caroline Estcourt, 15 February 1850, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.161.

  12 fluent in twenty languages: Lowenthal 2003, p.49.

  13 ‘Dutch … can be learned’: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 10 October 1848, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.128.

  14 Marsh used German words: Marsh to Caroline Escourt, 10 June 1848; Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 15 September 1848; Marsh to Caroline Marsh, 4 October 1858, Marsh 1888, vol.1, pp. 123, 127, 400.

  15 ‘greatest of the priesthood’: Marsh, ‘The Study of Nature’, Christian Examiner, 1860, Marsh 2001, p.83.

  16 ‘walking encyclopaedia’: George W. Wurts to Caroline Marsh, 1 October 1884; for his childhood and reading habits, Lowenthal 2003, pp.11ff., 18–19, 374; Marsh 1888, vol.1, pp.38, 103.

  17 ‘forest–born’: Marsh to Charles Eliot Norton, 24 May 1871, Lowenthal 2003, p.19.

  18 ‘I spent my early’: Marsh to Asa Gray, 9 May 1849, UVM.

  19 Marsh hated clients: Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.40; Lowenthal 2003, p.35.

  20 disliked teaching: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 25 April 1859, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.406.

  21 Marsh unsuccessful: Lowenthal 2003, pp.35, 41–2.

  22 ‘entirely without oratorical’: Caroline Marsh about Marsh, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.64.

  23 ‘If you live much’: James Melville Gilliss to Marsh, 17 September 1857, Lowenthal 2003, p.167.

  24 diplomatic posting: Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.133ff.; Lowenthal 2003, p.105.

  25 ‘a state of fearful’: Marsh to C.S. Davies, 23 March 1849, Lowenthal 2003, p.106.

  26 American Minister to Turkey: Lowenthal 2003, pp.106–7, 117; Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.136.

  27 tasks ‘very light’: Marsh to James B. Estcourt, 22 October 1849, Lowenthal 2003, p.107.

  28 Caroline and Marsh: Lowenthal 2003, pp.46, 377ff; Caroline Marsh, 1 and 12 April 1862, Caroline Marsh Journal, NYPL, pp.151, 153.

  29 female emancipation: Lowenthal 2003, p.381ff.

  30 ‘brilliant talker’: Cornelia Undewood to Levi Underwood, 5 December 1873, Lowenthal 2003, p.378.

  31 ‘old owl’ and ‘a croaker’: Marsh to Hiram Powers, 31 March 1863, ibid.

  32 Caroline Marsh’s ill health: Lowenthal 2003, pp.47, 92, 378.

  33 illness ‘incurable’: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 6 July 1859, UVM.

  34 Marsh carried Caroline: Marsh to Caroline Estcourt, 19 April 1851, Mars
h 1888, vol.1, pp.219.

  35 Nile expedition: Marsh to Lyndon Marsh, 10 February 1851; Marsh to Frederick Wislizenus, 10 February 1851; Marsh to H.A. Holmes, 25 February 1851; Marsh to Caroline Estcourt, 28 March 1851, Marsh 1888, vol.1, pp.205, 208, 211ff.

  36 ‘fresh from the Desert’: Marsh to Caroline Estcourt, 28 March 1851, ibid. p.213.

  37 ‘very earth’: Marsh to Caroline Estcourt, 28 March 1851, ibid., p.215.

  38 ‘I should like to know’: Ibid.

  39 ‘subdued by long’: Marsh to Frederick Wislizenus and Lucy Crane Frederick Wislizenus, 10 February 1851, ibid., p.206.

  40 ‘restless activity’: AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, p.11; AH Views 2014, p.158; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.2, p.13.

  41 ‘political and moral’: AH Plant Geography 2009, p.73.

  42 ‘wherever he stepped’: AH, 10 March 1801, AH Diary 2003, vol.1, p.44; for AH on deforestation in Cuba and Mexico, see AH Cuba 2011, p.115; AH New Spain 1811, vol.3, pp.251–2.

  43 ‘How I envy your’: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 3 May 1851, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.223.

  44 ‘a student of nature’: Marsh to American Consul-General in Cairo, 2 June 1851, ibid., p.226.

  45 ‘Scorpions are not yet’: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 23 August 1850, ibid., p.172.

  46 ‘and all else’: Spencer Fullerton Baird to Marsh, 9 February 1851; see also 9 August 1849 and 10 March 1851, UVM.

  47 ‘Trust nothing to the’: Marsh 1856, p.160; Lowenthal 2003, pp.130–31.

  48 ‘most part barren’: Marsh to Caroline and James B. Estcourt, 18 June 1851; for travels in 1851, see Marsh to Susan Perkins Marsh, 16 June 1851, Marsh 1888, vol.1, pp. 227–32, 238; Lowenthal 2003, pp.127–9.

  49 ‘assiduous husbandry’: Marsh to Caroline Estcourt, 28 March 1851, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.215; see also Marsh, ‘The Study of Nature’, Christian Examiner, 1860, Marsh 2001, p.86.

  50 ‘nature in the shorn’: Marsh 1857, p.11.

  51 ‘Man is everywhere’: Marsh 1864, p.36.

  52 all the forests’: Ibid., p.234.

  53 US agriculture and manufacture: Johnson 1999, pp.361, 531.

  54 Marsh began Man and Nature: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 10, 16 and 21 May 1860, Marsh 1888, vol.1, pp.420–22.

  55 raising Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune, 26 January 1858, 7 February 1866.

  56 empty rivers and lakes: Marsh 1857, pp.12–15; Marsh 1864, pp.107–8.

  57 statistics on fish and timber: Marsh 1864, pp.106, 251–7.

  58 cash crops: Ibid., p.278.

  59 size of fields for meat diet: Ibid., pp.277–8.

  60 ‘small duties & large’: Marsh to Francis Lieber, 12 April 1860; for Marsh’s finances, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.362; Lowenthal 2003, pp.155ff., 199.

  61 ‘I wish I was 30 years’: Marsh to Francis Lieber, 3 June 1859, UVM.

  62 ‘I could not survive’: Marsh to Charles D. Drake, 1 April 1861, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.429.

  63 preparations for Italy: Lowenthal 2003, p.219.

  64 Marsh’s speech at Burlington: Benedict 1888, vol.1, pp.20–21.

  65 Marsh departure from US: Lowenthal 2003, p.219; they arrived in Turin on 7 June 1861, see Caroline Marsh, 7 June 1861, Caroline Marsh Journal, NYPL, p.1.

  66 Marsh, Garibaldi, Union forces: Lowenthal 2003, p.238ff.

  67 Marsh and Riscasoli: Caroline Marsh, winter 1861, Caroline Marsh Journal, NYPL, p.71.

  68 ‘I have been entirely disappointed’: Marsh to Henry and Maria Buell Hickok, 14 January 1862; Marsh to William H. Seward, 12 May 1864, Lowenthal 2003, p.252; see also Caroline Marsh, 17 September 1861, 5 January 1862, 26 December 1862, 17 January 1863, Caroline Marsh Journal, NYPL, pp.43, 94, 99, 107.

  69 excursions: Caroline Marsh, 15 February, 25 March 1862, Caroline Marsh Journal, NYPL, pp.128, 148.

  70 ‘ice-mad’: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 21 November 1864, UVM.

  71 ‘I am not a bad climber’: Ibid.

  72 ‘We stole an hour’: Caroline Marsh, 10 March 1862; see also 11 March, 24 March and 1 April 1862, Caroline Marsh Journal, NYPL, pp.143–4, 148, 151.

  73 ‘a crime’ against nature: Caroline Marsh, 7 April 1862, ibid., p.157.

  74 writing Man and Nature: Caroline Marsh, 14 April 1862 and 2 April 1863, ibid., pp.154, 217; Lowenthal 2003, pp.270–73; see also Marsh to Charles Eliot Norton, 17 October 1863, UVM.

  75 ‘rather knocked out’: Caroline Marsh, 1 April 1862, Caroline Marsh Journal, NYPL, p.151.

  76 commit a ‘libricide’: Caroline about Marsh, Lowenthal 2003, p.272.

  77 ‘I do this’: Marsh to Charles Eliot Norton, 17 October 1863, UVM.

  78 ‘Man the Disturber’: Charles Scribner to Marsh, 7 July 1863; Marsh to Charles Scribner 10 September 1863, Marsh 1864, p.xxviii.

  79 ‘I shall steal’: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 21 May 1860, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.422.

  80 Marsh references to AH: Marsh 1864, pp.13–14, 68, 75, 91,128, 145, 175ff.

  81 man’s interference with nature: For hats and beavers, see Marsh 1864, pp.76–7; birds and insects, pp.34, 39, 79ff.; wolves, p.76; Boston aqueduct, p.92.

  82 ‘All nature is linked’: Ibid., p.96.

  83 for ‘consumption’: Ibid., p.36.

  84 extinction of animals and plants: Ibid., pp.64ff., 77ff., 96ff.

  85 ‘arid desert’ (footnote): AH, 4 March 1800, AH Diary 2000, p.217; AH Personal Narrative 1814–29, vol.4, p.154.

  86 irrigation: Marsh 1864, pp.322, 324.

  87 ‘shattered surface’: Marsh 1864, Ibid., p.43.

  88 Marsh on European landscape: Marsh to Spencer Fullerton Baird, 23 August 1850, July 1852, Marsh 1888, vol.1, p.174, 280; Marsh 1864, p.9, 19.

  89 ‘a desolation almost’: Marsh 1864, p.42.

  90 Roman Empire: Marsh, ‘Oration before the New Hampshire State Agricultural Society’, 10 October 1856, Marsh 2001, pp.36–7; Lowenthal 2003, p.x; Marsh 1864, p.xxiv.

  91 ‘Let us be wise’: Marsh 1864, p.198.

  92 ‘We can never know’: Ibid., pp.91–2; see also p110.

  93 ‘homo sapiens Europae’: Ibid., p.46.

  94 Madison and AH: AH sent his books to Madison; see David Warden to James Madison, 2 December 1811, Madison Papers PS, vol.4, p.48; Madison to AH, 30 November 1830, Terra 1959, p.799.

  95 Madison’s speech: Madison, Address to the Agricultural Society of Albemarle, 12 May 1818, Madison Papers RS, vol.1, pp.260–83; Wulf 2011, p.204ff.

  96 Bolívar’s decree: Bolívar, Decree, 19 December 1825, Bolívar 2009, p.258.

  97 ‘Measures for the Protection’: Bolívar, Measures for the Protection and Wise Use of the National Forests, 31 July 1829, Bolívar 2003, pp.199–200.

  98 AH and quinine harvest: AH Aspects 1849, vol.2, p.268; AH Views 2014, p.268; AH Ansichten 1849, vol.2, p.319; AH, 23–28 July 1802, AH Diary 2003, vol.2, pp.126–30.

  99 Bolívar and tree removal (footnote): Bolívar, Decree, 31 July 1829, Bolívar 2009, p.351; O’Leary 1879–8, vol.2, p.363.

  100 ‘In Wildness is the’: Thoreau, ‘Walking’, 1862 (first delivered as lecture in April 1851), Thoreau Excursion and Poems 1906, p.224.

  101 ‘inalienable forever’: Thoreau, 15 October 1859, Thoreau Journal 1906, vol.12, p.387.

  102 ‘national preserves’: Thoreau Maine Woods 1906, p.173.

  103 ‘Humboldt was the great’: Marsh, ‘The Study of Nature’, Christian Examiner, 1860, Marsh 2001, p.82.

  104 references to AH in Man and Nature: Marsh 1864, pp.13–14, 68, 75, 91, 128, 145, 175ff.

  105 evils of deforestation: Ibid., pp.128, 131, 137, 145, 154, 171, 180, 186–8.

  106 ‘thus the earth is’: Ibid., p.187.

  107 ‘We are … breaking up’: Ibid., p.52; for damage like earthquake, p.226.

  108 ‘Prompt measures’: Ibid., pp.201–2.

  109 ‘inalienable property’: Ibid., p.203; for replanting forests, pp.259ff., 269–80, 325.

  110 ‘We have now felled’: Ibid., p.280.

  111 ‘Earth is fast’: Ib
id., p.43.

  112 ‘rudest kick’: Wallace Stegner, in ibid., p.xvi.

  113 Marsh’s donation of copyright (footnote): Lowenthal 2003, p.302.

  114 ‘epoch-making’: Gifford Pinchot, ibid., p.304; Gifford Pinchot to Mary Pinchot, 21 March 1886, Miller 2001, p.392; for John Muir, see Wolfe 1946, p.83.

  115 1873 Timber Culture Act: Lowenthal 2003, p.xi.

  116 ‘along the slope’: Hugh Cleghorn to Marsh, 6 Marsh 1868; for influence of Man and Nature worldwide, see Lowenthal 2003, pp.303–5.

  117 ‘the fountainhead of’: Mumford 1931, p.78.

  118 ‘The future … is more uncertain’: Marsh 1861, p.637.

  Chapter 22: Art, Ecology and Nature

  1 ‘Two souls, alas’: Haeckel to Anna Sethe, 29 May 1859, p.63; see also Haeckel to parents, 29 May 1859, Haeckel 1921b, p.66; Carl Gottlob Haeckel to Ernst Haeckel, 19 May 1859 (Akademieprojekt ‘Ernst Haeckel (1834–1918): Briefedition’: I have Thomas Bach to thank for providing me with a summary of the transcript).

  2 ‘beckoning temptations’: Haeckel to Anna Sethe, 29 May 1859, Haeckel 1921b, p.64.

  3 ‘Mephistopheles’ scornful laughter’: Ibid.

  4 ‘understand nature’: Ibid.

  5 AH, art and nature: Cosmos 1845–52, vol.2, pp.74, 85, 87; AH Kosmos 1845–50, vol.2, pp.76, 87, 90; Haeckel to parents, 6 November 1852, Haeckel 1921a, p.9.

  6 Haeckel’s later reputation (footnote): Richards 2008, pp.244–76, 489–512.

  7 AH in Haeckel’s youth: Haeckel to Wilhelm Bölsche, 4 August 1892, 4 November 1899, 14 May 1900, Haeckel Bölsche Letters 2002, pp.46, 110, 123–4; Haeckel 1924, p.ix; Richards 2009, p.20ff.; Di Gregorio 2004, pp.31–5; Krauße 1995, pp.352–3; Humboldt’s books are still on the bookshelves in Haeckel’s study in Ernst-Haeckel-Haus in Jena.

  8 Haeckel read Cosmos: Haeckel to his parents, 6 November 1852, Haeckel 1921a, p.9.

  9 Haeckel’s appearance: Max Fürbringer in 1866, Richards 2009, p.83; and exercising, see Haeckel to his parents, 11 June 1856, Haeckel 1921a, p.194.

  10 ‘I cannot tell you’: Haeckel to his parents, 27 November 1852; see also 23 May and 8 July 1853, 5 May 1855, Haeckel 1921a, pp.19, 54, 63–4, 132.