Natural History
Natural history has become a more inclusive subject in recent times, embracing many diverse, focused scientific disciplines. Modern natural history museums, for example, often include elements of anthropology, geology, paleontology, ecology, and astronomy besides botany and zoology. Historically, however, it usually has been associated with the observational study of plants and animals in their environments.
Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann, 1743–1815
Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann taught college mathematics and natural history at the Collegium Carolinum in the former duchy of Brunswick in central Germany. One of his pupils was Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), who became one of history’s most influential mathematicians. Zimmermann traveled throughout Europe to study economic conditions and natural resources. Today, he is considered one of the founders of animal geography.
[Above, right] Title page of Zimmermann’s A Political Survey of the Present State of Europe: In Sixteen Tables; Illustrated with Observation on the Wealth and Commerce, the Government, Finances, Military State, and Religion of the Several Countries (Dublin: L. White, 1788) [Rare Books Division]. This particular copy belonged to John Witherspoon, president (1768–1794) of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and bears his ownership inscription. The first edition of the book was printed in London in 1787.
Around the time that English political economist William Playfair began charting data, Zimmermann published this statistical work containing tabular data, thus heralding a new science:
It is about forty years ago that that branch of political knowledge, which has for its object the actual and relative power of the several modern states, the power arising from their natural advantages, the industry and civilization of their inhabitants, and the wisdom of their governments, has been formed, chiefly by German writers, into a separate science. It used formerly to be improperly connected with geography; and it was but superficially treated amidst the topographical and descriptive details of the larger geographical works. . . . [T]his science, distinguished by the new-coined name of Statistics, is become a favourite study in Germany” [pp. i–ii; Zimmermann’s emphasis].
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this is one of the earliest appearances of the word “statistics”in the English language, continuing its original association with political science. For each of his statistical tables, Zimmermann cites the sources of information (many German) that served as his authorities, including dictionaries, geographies, manuals, histories, periodicals, and even travel writings. Zimmermann was eager to showcase German efforts, but he was also an admirer of English government and society and wanted them to embrace this science. A strong motive behind its publication, he states, was his desire to provide young English travelers with a useful, non-bulky reference book to accompany them on their grand tour through Europe.
[Above] "Tabula mundi geographico zoologica sistens quadrupedes hucusque notos sedibus suis adscirptos" (1783). Copperplate map, with added outline color, 47 × 66 cm [Historic Maps Collection]. Probably issued in Zimmermann's Geographische Geschichte des Menschen, und der allgemein verbreiteten vierfüssigen Thiere . . . (Leipzig: In der Weygandschen Buchhandlung, 1778–1783).
First map of animal geography. Originally published under a different title in Zimmermann's Specimen zoologiae geographicae, Quadrupedum domicilia et migrationes sistens (Leiden, 1777), this world map of 390° reflects some updated geography, including English Captain James Cook's discovery of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). Note, however, that only the most basic place names are provided. It is the addition and geographical placement of the Latin names of quadrupeds that distinguishes the map from anything previously published. Castor (beaver), for example, appears throughout northern North America; leo (lion) in Africa; and kanguro (kangaroo) in northeastern Australia, where Cook's men first sighted one. Though very rudimentary in style and accuracy, the map marks an auspicious moment in the history of thematic mapping.
Portrait of Joakim Frederik Schouw. Frontispiece to his Die Erde, die Planzen und der Mensch: Populäre Naturschilderungen (Leipzig: Carl B. Lorck, 1851).
Joakim Frederik Schouw, 1789–1852
The son of a Danish wine merchant, Joakim Frederik Schouw became a lawyer before building a career as a pioneering botanist in the field of phytogeography. The turning point came in 1812, when he accompanied Christen Smith, a Norwegian botanist, on a botanical trip in the mountains, where he began to note how vegetation was organized into altitudinal zones. In Copenhagen, he devoured botanical literature, particularly that of Alexander von Humboldt and Göran Wahlenberg. He earned a Ph.D. in 1816, writing on the origin and evolution of plant species. A three-year travel grant took him through the Alps and southern Europe; on his return he visited Humboldt in Paris. In 1820, he began teaching botany at Copenhagen University. From 1831, he edited the weekly Danish periodical Dansk Ugeskrift (1831–1846) where many of his popular science lectures appeared, increasing his reputation. He became curator of the botanical gardens of Copenhagen in 1841. Schouw was also one of the main leaders of the political movement that lead to the first democratic constitution of Denmark in 1849. During the later part of his life, he was active in promoting Scandinavism, the idea of a unified Scandinavian region, and advocated the division of the southern Jutland region of Schleswig between Denmark and Germany.
“Tafel III.” Foldout table from the text volume of Schouw’s Grundzüge einer allgemeinen Pflanzengeographie (Berlin: Gedruckt und verlegt bei G. Reimer, 1823) [Historic Maps Collection]. First German edition, translated by Schouw from the Danish version that he published in the previous year.
Schouw’s Grundzüge einer allgemeinen Pflanzengeographie [Fundamental features of a general plant geography] is the first vegetation atlas, consisting of twelve pairs of eastern and western hemisphere maps on facing pages, showing the global distribution of various classes of plants, with a companion volume in which he discusses his and others’ related plant research. Annual temperature ranges of geographic regions is a critical factor in his botanical analysis. In this table, Schouw charts the monthly, seasonal, and annual average temperatures across a variety of mostly European cities, and provides his sources for the information at the bottom (Humboldt, of course, is one). Accordingly, temperatures in Rome and the Sicilian city of Palermo seem particularly advantageous for a range of plant growth.
[Above] “Taf V. Verbreitungsbezirk und Vertheilungsweise der Gertreide-arten.” Copperplate map, with added color, diameter of 33.8 cm. From the atlas volume of Schouw’s Grundzüge einer allgemeinen Pflanzengeographie (1823) [Historic Maps Collection]. This atlas volume was added for the German edition.
Only the eastern hemisphere part of the map is shown. Broad strokes of color illustrate the distribution and range of five basic grain types (in order from the top): barley and oats, rye, wheat, rice, corn.