Lecture at the German American Heritage Center & Museum in Davenport, Iowa.

Even over two centuries after Alexander von

Humboldt’s celebrated American expedition

(1799-1804), the Prussian naturalist, historian

and humanist is well remembered on both sides

of the Atlantic. While some praise him as the

father of environmentalism, others question his

contribution to the sciences. While some take

him as a colonial explorer, others heroize him

as the ideological leader of the Independence

movement in Spanish America.