Goethe Institute United States (Goethe Pop Up Kansas, Houston and Seattle)

Virtual lecture

https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/sta/ppk/ver.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&event_id=22007366

In 1804, famed German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) arrived in the United States after a five-year exploration voyage through the Spanish colonies. Here, he became acquainted with the most prominent scholarly and political circles in Philadelphia and Washington. He also met several times with President Jefferson in the new capital and provided the US government with geographical and statistical material that he had taken from the Spanish archives in Madrid and Mexico. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and diplomatic disputes between the United States and Spain regarding the borders of the acquired territory, Jefferson was much interested in Humboldt’s expertise. The fact that Humboldt did generously pass information to the young nation, as part of the free circulation of knowledge he practiced, yet has also attracted criticism. In her lecture, Dr. Rebok explores the questions of how useful these documents actually were for Jefferson’s vision for the West, why Humboldt felt entitled to freely dispose of this knowledge, and what this means for our modern understanding if science and its role in society.