Humboldt and the Habitability of Canada's Great Northwest

Bibliographic Data

ID4487247
AuthorsSuzanne Zeller (corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume96
Issue3
Pages382-398
Publication date2006-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeographical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7428 • E-ISSN: 1931-0846
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1931-0846.2006.tb00257.x
OpenAlexW1525726568
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited32

Alexander von Humboldt's influence in British North America during the nineteenth century was filtered mainly through British imperial applications of "Humboldtian" sciences, including geomagnetism and biogeography. The best‐known examples include Edward Sabine and John Henry Lefroy, Royal Artillery officers who, during the 1830s and 1840s, transformed British North American outposts and territories, including Rupert's Land, into Humboldtian sites and regions in Great Britain's imperial "magnetic crusade." Important groundwork had already been laid by John Richardson, who applied data accrued during John Franklin's overland Arctic expeditions during the 1820s to systematize Humboldtian inquiries into the habitability of Canada's Great Northwest. Despite both the relative decline of Humboldtian sciences by midcentury and Humboldt's own reservations about the political ramifications of his science, his "cosmic" outlook circulated in Canada to refine territorial expansionists' scientistic arguments justifying annexation of Rupert's Land after the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company expired in 1869.KeywordsbiogeographyCanadageomagnetismAlexander von HumboldtJohn Henry LefroyJohn RichardsonRupert's Land 1 Dr. Zeller is an associate professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5, Canada.* The author thanks Andreas Daum, the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., Pam Schaus, Graeme Wynn, the anonymous reviewers, Kent Mathewson and Andrew Sluyter, and Viola Haarmann and Douglas Johnson.1 Dr. Zeller is an associate professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5, Canada.* The author thanks Andreas Daum, the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., Pam Schaus, Graeme Wynn, the anonymous reviewers, Kent Mathewson and Andrew Sluyter, and Viola Haarmann and Douglas Johnson.Notes1 Dr. Zeller is an associate professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3C5, Canada.* The author thanks Andreas Daum, the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., Pam Schaus, Graeme Wynn, the anonymous reviewers, Kent Mathewson and Andrew Sluyter, and Viola Haarmann and Douglas Johnson

Astrobiology · Astronomy · Geography · Habitability · Planet · Alexander von Humboldt Studies · History of Science and Natural History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology

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