by Andrea Wulf
Darwin, Emma (née Wedgwood; Charles’s wife)
Darwin, Erasmus (Charles’s grandfather): on evolution of species, 17.1; The Loves of the Plants (poem), 2.1, 17.2; Zoomania, 17.3, 17.4
Darwin, Henrietta (Charles’s daughter)
Darwin, Robert (Charles’s father), 14.1, 17.1, 17.2
Davy, Sir Humphry, 11.1, 13.1, 14.1
deforestation: AH warns against, prl.1; and climate change, 4.1, 4.2; AH’s views on, 16.1; Thoreau on, 19.1; Marsh on, 21.1, 21.2, 22.1, 23.1, 23.2; Madison warns against, 21.3; Muir on, 23.3
Descartes, René, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 4.1, 13.1
Description de l’Égypte
Deutsche Bund (German Confederation)
diamonds: AH finds in Russia
Diderot, Denis (ed.): Encyclopédie
Dolores (Mexico)
earth: age and formation, 2.1, 6.1, 14.1, 15.1
earthquakes, 4.1, 12.1, 15.1, 17.1, 23.1
East India Company (British), 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 14.1, 14.2
ecology: Humboldt’s observations on, 4.1; Haeckel coins word, 22.1
Edinburgh Review
Edward VII, King of Great Britain: christening
Egypt: Napoleon’s expedition to, 3.1, 11.1
Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried, 16.1, 16.2
electric eels, 5.1, 10.1
Elgin Marbles
Emerson, Edward
Emerson, Lydian
Emerson, Ralph Waldo: on AH’s observation, prl.1; Transcendentalism, 2.1, 19.1; relations with Thoreau, 4.1, 19.2, 19.3; inspired by AH’s Views of Nature, 10.1; reads Cosmos, 18.1; visits Muir in California, 23.1
empiricism, 2.1, 10.1
Encke, Johann Franz
Endeavour (ship)
Enlightenment: in AH’s education, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 8.1; in Saxe-Weimar, 2.1; on external and internal worlds, 2.2; Bolívar embraces ideas, 9.1, 12.1, 14.1; and rationalism, 10.1
Erie Canal (USA)
Ernst Ludwig I, King of Hanover
Essay on the Geography of Plants (AH): publication, 10.1, 10.2; frontispiece and dedication to Goethe, 10.3; Spanish translation, 12.1; and shifting of tectonic plates, 15.1
Evelyn, John: Sylva
evolution: Darwin’s theory of, prl.1, 17.1, 17.2, 18.1; AH propounds, 10.1, 17.3; Haeckel supports, 22.1
Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria
Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, 12.1, 12.2
finches (birds): on Galapagos Islands, 17.1, 17.2
FitzRoy, Captain Robert: as captain of Beagle, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 17.4, 17.5; qualities and moods, 17.6; on Darwin’s enthusiasm, 17.7
Floyd, John B.
Fontane, Theodor
Forest Reserves Act (USA, 1891), 21.1
forests: in ecosystem, 4.1, 16.1, 21.1; see also deforestation; rainforest
Forster, Georg
Fox, William Darwin
Fragmens de géologie et de climatologie asiatiques (AH), 16.1, 17.1
France: revolution and wars, 1.1, 3.1, 8.1, 9.1; equality in, 8.2; sells North American territory to USA, 8.3, 12.1; military defeats, 11.1; monarchy restored under Louis XVIII and Charles X, 14.1
Francia, José Gaspar Rodríguez de
Frankfurt am Main: National Assembly (1849)
Frankfurt an der Oder, 1.1, 10.1
Franklin, Benjamin, 1.1, 4.1, 8.1, 9.1, 12.1, 14.1
Frederick II (the Great), King of Prussia, 1.1, 1.2, 10.1
Freiberg: mining academy
French Revolution (1789), 1.1, 8.1, 9.1
Fried, Erich
Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia, 1.1, 10.1
Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia: awards pension and court appointment to AH, 10.1, 14.1; character, 10.2; neutrality in Napoleonic Wars, 10.3; and Prussian peace mission to Paris (1807), 10.4; AH accompanies to London (1814), 13.1; finances AH’s expedition to Asia, 14.2; urges AH to return to Berlin, 14.3; AH joins court, 14.4; death, 18.1
Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, 18.1, 20.1, 20.2, 20.3, 20.4
Gaia theory
Galapagos Islands, 17.1, 17.2
Gallatin, Albert, 8.1, 14.1, 14.2
Gallé, Émile
Galvani, Luigi, 1.1, 2.1; see also animal electricity
García Márquez, Gabriel: The General in his Labyrinth
Garibaldi, Giuseppe
Gaudí, Antoni
Gauß, Carl Friedrich, 14.1, 15.1, 20.1
Gay-Lussac, Joseph Louis, 9.1, 9.2, 11.1
Geognostical Essay on the Superposition of Rocks (AH)
Géographe (ship)
geomagnetism, 7.1, 16.1, 18.1
George, Prince Regent (later King George IV), 14.1, 14.2
German Association of Naturalists and Physicians, n
Germany: federation and reforms, 15.1; demands for unification, 20.1, 20.2; national colours, 20.3; industrial power, 22.1
glaciers and glaciation
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: appearance, 2.1; praises AH, prl.1, bm1.1; AH meets in Jena, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5; affair and child with Christiane Vulpius, 2.6; pictured, 2.7, 2.8; qual-ities and lifestyle, 2.9; scientific interests and theories, 2.10, 2.11; and urform, 2.12, 17.1, 19.1; admires Kant, 2.13; on self and nature, 2.14, 2.15; on unity of art and science, 2.16; and AH in South America, 5.1; and AH’s interest in volcanoes, 6.1; on AH’s return to Paris, 9.1; letter from AH in Berlin, 10.1; AH’s Essay on the Geography of Plants dedicated to, 10.2, on AH’s nature and travel writing, 10.3, 11.1; and AH’s frustration in writing, 11.2; and AH’s restlessness, 11.3; and effect of AH’s lectures on women, 15.1; AH renews friendship with, 15.2; as Neptunist on creation of Earth, 15.3; and AH’s Cosmos, 18.1; death, 18.2; sketches Schiller’s Garden House, 22.1; Elective Affinities, 2.17, 10.4; Faust, 2.18, 13.1, 13.2, 18.3, 22.2; Hermann and Dorothea, 2.19; The Metamorphosis of Plants (essay and poem), 2.20, 2.21; The Sorrows of Young Werther, 2.22, 4.1
Göttingen university
Gould, John
Grant, Ulysses S.
Gray, Asa
Gray, Vincent
Great Western (steamship)
Guayaquil (Ecuador)
Haeckel, Anna (née Sethe), 22.1, 22.2, 22.3; death, 22.4, 22.5
Haeckel, Ernst: in Italy, 22.1, 22.2; learns of AH’s death, 22.3, 22.4; scientific interests and influence, 22.5, 22.6; appearance, 22.7; background and career, 22.8; racial theories, 22.9; idolizes AH, 22.10, 22.11; studies radiolarians, 22.12; marriage, 22.13; and Anna’s death, 22.14, 22.15; champions Darwin, 22.16; ecological thinking, 22.17; travels, 22.18, 22.19; meets Darwin, 22.20; remarries, 22.21; influence on Art Nouveau, 22.22; builds and decorates Villa Medusa, 22.23; ideas and beliefs, 22.24; Generelle Morphologie der Organismen (General Morphology of Organisms), 22.25; Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature; series), 22.26, 22.27; Die Radiolarien (Rhizopoda Radiaria), 22.28; Welträthsel (The Riddle of the Universe), 22.29
Haiti
Halle (Prussia): university
Hardenberg, Karl August von
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Haydon, Benjamin Robert
Henslow, John Stevens, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3
Herschel, John, 14.1, 14.2
Herschel, William
Hetch Hetchy Valley (Yosemite National Park)
Hidalgo y Costilla, Miguel
Himalaya, 13.1, 14.1, 15.1, 20.1
Hodges, William
Homestead Act (USA, 1862), 21.1
Honda (Colombia)
Hooker, Joseph Dalton, 18.1, 18.2, 20.1
Humboldt, Alexander Georg von (AH’s father), 1.1
Humboldt, Alexander von: climbs Chimborazo, prl.1, prl.2, prl.3, 7.1, 10.1, 10.2; travels in Latin America, prl.4, 3.1, 6.1, 7.2; interest in volcanoes, prl.5, 3.2, 6.2, 7.3, 9.1, 15.1; birth and family background, prl.6, 1.1; ideas and qualities, prl.7; condemns colonial exploitation, prl.8, 8.1, 9.2, 12.1, 12.2, 13.1, 13.2, 16.1; view of connectivity of nature, prl.9, prl.10, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6, 10.3, 13.3, 13.4, 15.2, 16.2, 17.1, 23.1; memory, prl.11; influence, prl.12; Thoreau influenced by, prl
.13, prl.14, 18.1, 19.1, 19.2; centennial of birth celebrated (1869), prl.15; and South American revolutionary movement, prl.16, 12.3, 12.4; upbringing and education, 1.2, 1.3; appearance and manner, 1.4, 3.3, 11.1, 14.1, 18.2, 18.3, 20.1, 20.2; sharp comments and wit, 1.5, 9.3, 11.2, 11.3, 18.4, 20.3, 20.4; attends universities, 1.6, 10.4; visits to London, 1.7, 13.5, 14.2; wanderlust and restlessness (‘maladie centrifuge’), 1.8, 3.4, 9.4, 11.4, 13.6, 14.3, 14.4, 15.3; studies finance and economics, 1.9; learns languages, 1.10; studies and practises mining and geology, 1.11; solitariness, 1.12, 6.3, 9.5, 20.5; travels in Europe, 1.13, 14.5; early scientific experiments and theories, 1.14, 2.4; meets Goethe in Jena and Weimar, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7; and perception of reality, 2.8; preoccupation with Kant, 2.9; and subjective understanding of nature, 2.10, 2.11; and mother’s death, 3.5, 3.6; preparations for travelling expedition, 3.7; attends séances, 3.8; leaves Spain on first expedition, 3.9; Spanish passport, 3.10, 3.11; reaches Venezuela, 3.12; working method in Latin America, 4.1; pictured, 4.2, 9.6; experiences earthquake in Cumaná, 4.3, 17.2; expedition to Casiquiare river, 4.4; on human effect on environment, 4.5, 23.2; sends specimens from South America to Europe, 6.4; letters home from travels, 6.5, 6.6; sense of loneliness in Andes, 6.7; infatuations and attachments to male friends, 6.8; endures hurricane at sea, 8.2; meets Jefferson, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5; rapid speech and garrulity, 8.6, 9.7, 11.5, 13.7, 14.6, 18.5, 18.6, 18.7; condemns slavery, 8.7, 12.5, 17.3, 20.6; returns to Paris (1804), 9.8; lectures at Académie des Sciences, 9.9; meets Bolívar, 9.10, 9.11; visits Italy with Gay-Lussac, 9.12; writings, 9.13, 10.5, 10.6, 11.6, 23.3; granted Prussian pension, 10.7, 14.7; visits Berlin (1805–6), 10.8; on plant distribution, 10.9 &n, 10.10, 17.4, 23.4; settles in Paris (1807–27), 10.11, 11.7, 11.8; correspondence, 11.9, 20.7, 20.8, 20.9; relations with Arago, 11.10; accused of francophilia, 11.11; on Latin American politics, 12.6; praises Bolívar as liberator, 12.7; attacks Buffon, 12.8; plans expedition to India and Asia, 13.8, 13.9, 13.10, 14.8, 15.4; relations with brother Wilhelm, 13.11, 15.5, 18.8; influence on British romantic writers, 13.12; influence on Darwin, 13.13, 17.5, 17.6, 17.7, 17.8, 18.9, 20.10; Asian expedition financed by Friedrich Wilhelm III, 14.9; visits Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), 14.10; financial problems and debts, 14.11, 14.12, 20.11; generosity to young scientists, 14.13, 20.12; near-paralysis in right arm, 14.14; moves to Berlin (1827), 14.15, 15.6; inspects Brunels’ Thames tunnel, 14.16; court duties in Berlin, 15.7, 18.10; social and educational reforms in Berlin, 15.8; and Prussian political situation, 15.9; lectures in Berlin, 15.10; withdraws from political engagement, 15.11; lecture notes, 194–5; organizes Berlin scientific conference (1828), 15.12; renews friendship with Goethe, 15.13; on creation and development of earth, 15.14; travels in Russia, 16.3; finds diamonds in Russia, 16.4; sixtieth birthday, 16.5; idolized in Russia, 16.6; escapes injury in carriage accident, 16.7; returns part of Russian travel expenses, 16.8; Darwin sends copy of The Voyage of the Beagle to, 17.9; fame and reputation in Berlin, 18.11; drowns out pianist with talk, 18.12; humility and readiness to learn, 18.13; qualities and character, 18.14; annual visits to Paris from Berlin, 18.15, 18.16; grief at brother Wilhelm’s death, 18.17; life and routine in Berlin, 18.18; meets Darwin in London, 18.19; never reads Darwin’s Origin of Species, 18.20; Hooker meets in Paris, 18.21; in 1848 revolution, 20.13; and failed German unification, 20.14; fame and visitors in old age, 20.15; handwriting, 20.16; international celebrity, 20.17; interest in technologies, 20.18; old age in Berlin, 20.19; facility in languages, 20.20; survives stroke, 20.21; death and funeral, 20.22; obituaries and tributes, 20.23; posthumous reputation, 20.24, bm1.1; warns against irrigating Llanos, 21.1; on debarking cinchona trees, 21.2; Marsh praises, 21.3; Haeckel admires, 22.1; walking, 23.5; Muir reads and idealizes, 23.6, 23.7, 23.8; achievements, bm1.2
Humboldt, Caroline von (née Dachröden; Wilhelm’s wife): view of AH, 1.1; AH visits in Jena, 2.1, 3.1; in Paris, 3.2, 3.3, 9.1; on AH’s attachments to men, 6.1; death of children, 9.2, 9.3; practical concern for AH, 9.4; in Rome, 9.5; Coleridge visits in Rome, 13.1; concern over AH’s generosity being exploited, 14.1; on AH’s lecturing in Berlin, 15.1, 15.2; death from cancer, 16.1
Humboldt, Marie Elisabeth von (AH’s mother): relations with sons, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3; death, 3.1, 3.2
Humboldt, Wilhelm von (AH’s older brother): upbringing, 1.1; intellectual interests, 1.2; attends Göttingen university, 1.3; AH visits in Jena, 2.1, 2.2; translates Aeschylus, 2.3; in Schiller’s garden, Jena, 2.4; and AH’s preoccupation with Kant, 2.5; and mother’s death, 3.1; moves to Paris, 3.2, 3.3; AH writes to from Andes, 6.1; on AH’s mental processes, 7.1; and AH’s return to Paris, 9.1; death of children, 9.2, 9.3; as Prussian Minister at Vatican, 9.4; on AH’s gentler side, 9.5; and Caroline’s concern for AH in Paris, 9.6; AH visits in Rome, 9.7; earnings, 10.1; disapproves of AH’s staying in Paris in war, 10.2, 11.1, 11.2; misgivings over AH’s relations with Arago, 11.3; as Prussian Minister of Education, 11.4, 15.1; moves to Vienna as Prussian ambassador, 11.5; as Prussian Minister to Britain, 13.1, 14.1; relations with AH, 13.2, 15.2, 18.1; leaves London for Berlin, 14.2, 15.3; on AH’s lectures in Berlin, 15.4; letter from ageing Goethe, 15.5; passion for languages, 15.6; and wife’s death, 16.1; letters from AH in Russia, 16.2, 16.3, 16.4; AH snubs attempt to find post for, 18.2; founds University of Berlin, 18.3; withdraws to Tegel, 18.4; decline and death, 18.5
Humboldt Current
Humboldtia laurifolia
hummingbirds
Hunter, John
Huxley, Aldous: Beyond the Mexique Bay
Huxley, Thomas Henry, 22.1
Imagination: AH’s, 1.1, 13.1; and nature, 2.1, 2.2, 10.1, 10.2, bm1.1; AH on as balm, 4.1, 6.1; Bolívar’s, 9.1, 12.1; and reason, 11.1, 13.2; and science, 13.3, 18.1, 19.1; as creative force, 18.2; Thoreau on, 19.2
Imperial Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg
India: AH’s plan to visit frustrated, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 14.1, 15.1
Indianapolis, 23.1, 23.2
indigo: cultivation
International Governmental Panel on Climate Change (United Nations)
isotherms, prl.1, 14.1
Italy: AH visits with Gay-Lussac, 9.1; Marsh in, 21.1; unification, 21.2; Haeckel in, 22.1, 22.2
jaguars, 5.1, 17.1
Jamaica: Bolívar in
Jardin des Plantes, Paris, 9.1, 9.2, 11.1
Java: Haeckel visits, 22.1, 22.2
Jefferson, Maria (Thomas’s daughter): death
Jefferson, Thomas: on AH, prl.1; concept of liberty and democracy, prl.2, 8.1; AH meets, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 19.1; appearance, 8.5; qualities and lifestyle, 8.6, 8.7; favours agrarian economy, 8.8, 8.9, 8.10; in Washington, 8.11; agricultural practices, 8.12; and slavery in USA, 8.13, 12.1; and AH’s plan to explore North America, 9.1; interest in South American revolutions, 12.2, 12.3; refutes Buffon’s disparagement of America, 12.4; AH recommends Portuguese botanist to, 14.1; death, 15.1; Notes on the State of Virginia, 8.14
Jena (Germany), prl.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3; battle of (1806), 10.1
Johnson, Andrew
Johnson, Robert Underwood
Journal des Débâts, 14.1
Kaliningrad see Königsberg
Kalmyk people
Kant, Immanuel, 2.1, 10.1, 13.1, 19.1; Critique of Pure Reason, 2.2; Physische Geographie, 2.3
Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, 2.1, 2.2
Kazakh (or Kirghiz) Steppe
Keats, John
kelp: in food chain
keystone species
Klein, Naomi: This Changes Everything
knowledge: and internal and external world
Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), 2.1, 10.1, 16.1
Kosmos (magazine)
Kunth, Gottlob Johann Christian, 1.1, 1.2, 14.1
Kunth, Karl Sigismund, 11.1, 14.1
Kyrgyz (people)
Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste, 2.1, 9.1, 17.1, 17.2
language: Wilhelm on
Lanzarote (Canary islands)
Laplace, Pierre-Simon, Marquis de, 2.1, 9.1, 11.1; The Mechanism of the H
eavens, 14.1
Latin America: AH travels in, prl.1, 3.1, 6.1, 7.1; Spanish possessions and colonization, 3.2, 6.2, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 12.1; creoles in, 4.1, 9.1; indigenous people, 5.1; ancient civilizations, 7.2, 12.2; slavery and free labour, 8.4, 17.1; revolutionary beginnings, 9.2, 9.3; AH writes on, 11.1, 12.3, 12.4; Bolívar returns to (1807), 12.5; liberation from Spanish rule, 12.6, 12.7, 12.8, 12.9; blockaded in Napoleonic Wars, 12.10; Spanish viceroyalties and administration, 12.11; AH defends against Buffon’s criticisms, 12.12; federation fails, 15.1; Beagle expedition visits, 17.2; Muir visits, 23.1
LeConte, Joseph, 23.1
Legions of Hell (Latin America), 12.1, 12.2
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von
Lewis, Meriwether, 8.1, 19.1
Liebig, Justus von
Lima, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 7.1, 7.2
Lincoln, Abraham, 21.1, 21.2, 23.1
Linnaeus, Carl, 4.1, 10.1, 13.1
llaneros, 12.1, 12.2
Llanos (Latin America), 5.1, 5.2, 10.1, 12.1, 21.1
Locke, John
Loja (Ecuador)
London: AH visits, 1.1, 13.1, 14.1, 14.2, 18.1
Louis XVI, King of France: executed
Louis XVIII, King of France
Louis Philippe, King of France
Lovelock, James