On 20 March 2020, a new grand exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum titled “Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture” was scheduled to open. It was to be the “first to examine Humboldt’s impact on five spheres of American cultural development: the visual arts, sciences, literature, politics, and exploration, between 1804 and 1903. It was proclaimed to include works of by “Albert Bierstadt, Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, Frederic Church, Eastman Johnson, Samuel F.B. Morse, Charles Willson Peale, John Rogers, William James Stillman, and John Quincy Adams Ward,” as well as the “original “Peale Mastodon” skeleton, on loan from the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt.”
Needless to note, it didn’t open.
However that doesn’t mean that it won’t still one day [insert any deity you like here] willing be opened to the public. And while we’re all awaiting the day when it does, the book of the same name, published to accompany it, is available to all who would like to explore through its pages the astonishing influence Alexander von Humboldt, his adventures, and his widely popular writings had on 19th century America.
And, while your waiting for your copy of Alexander von Humboldt and the United States to be delivered, you can whet your appetite by listening to the Smithsonian’s Sidedoor podcast “The Last Man Who Knew It All” via your favorite podcast app.
