South America
Willard, Bradford. “Harvey Bassler’s Peruvian Anecdotes: A Geologist’s Largely Non-geological Observances in Northeastern Peru”. Lehigh University: 1968.
Harvey Bassler, 1882-1951. Lehigh University, Class of 1908.
“Narratives” 1926 and 1928
Geologist, traveler, collector, scholar, and author Harvey Bassler received his BA degree at Myerstown Albright College in 1903 and a mining engineering degree from Lehigh University in 1908. He earned a Ph.D. from John Hopkins University in 1913, and was awarded honorary doctorates by Albright College and Lehigh.
Bassler spent many years in South America working for Standard Oil Company as geologist in charge of field studies in northeastern Peru. He traveled extensively in the jungle and at times lived among native tribes in the course of his field work. Following his work for Standard Oil, he spent 14 more years in Iquitos, Peru. Although he was primarily a geologist, he also had a deep interest and knowledge in other fields of science. During this time in Peru “he saw everything and made notes on all that he saw” and kept a journal which he called “Narrative”. Bassler’s journal is an extraordinary account that covers every aspects of the place he saw in Peru. Two sample volumes are displayed here.
Harvey Bassler was also a passionate book collector. During his years in Peru, he collected books on geography, natural history, geology, zoology and botany. It was believed that his collection was the largest private library in South America during that time. “The [Bassler] collection contains 60,000 items and weighs 24 tons and covers 14 ranges of stacks” reported the Brown and White when Harvey Bassler donated a large portion of his library to Lehigh University.
Bassler died in 1951 in an automobile accident.
Richard Spruce (1817-1893).
Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon & Andes; being Records of Travel on the Amazon and its Tributaries, the Trombetas, Rio Negro, Uaupés, Casiquiari, Pacimoni, Huallaga and Pastasa; as also to the Cataracts of the Orinoco, along the Eastern Side of the Andes of Peru and Ecuador, and the Shores of the Pacific, during the Years 1849-1864. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1908. Volume 1.
English botanist and explorer Richard Spruce carried out a detailed study of the Amazon in the mid-nineteenth century, sending back thousands of specimens to the Kew Gardens of England. He was able to successfully collect a Cinchona specimen, a particularly difficult plant to harvest, which is used as a source of quinine for malaria. Spruce was also influenced by Alexander von Humboldt’s explorations of the Amazon, and made sure to describe his travels through the same territories in his narrative.
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859).
Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, during the Years 1799-1804, by Alexander de Humboldt, and Aimé Bonpland… London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown…; J. Murray...; and H. Colburn, 1814-1829. Volumes 1 and 2.
Geologist, naturalist, botanist, and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, accompanied by botanist Aimé Bonpland, travelled over 1700 miles across the Orinoco River watershed into Amazonia, before exploring other parts of South America. During his travels, Humboldt located the canal linking the Orinoco and Amazon rivers, among other exploits. His observations, a mix of scientific insight and descriptive narrative of the natural world, were widely acclaimed by contemporaries. Humboldt’s work inspired Charles Darwin to begin his scientific explorations on H.M.S. Beagle. This is the English translation of Humboldt’s Voyage aux Régions Equinoxiales du Nouveau Continent.
François-Raymond Joseph de Pons (1751-1812).
A Voyage to the Eastern Part of Terra Firma, or the Spanish Main, in South-America, during the years 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804. Containing a Description of the Territory under the Jurisdiction of the Captain General of Caraccas, Composed of the Provinces of Venezuela, Maracaibo, Varinas, Spanish Guiana, Cumana, and the Island of Margaretta; and Embracing Everything Relative to the Discovery, Conquest, Topography, Legislation, Commerce, Finance, Inhabitants and Productions of the Provinces, Together with a View of the Manners and Customs of the Spaniards, and the Savage as well as Civilized Indians. New York, I. Riley and co., 1806. Volume 1.
François de Pons, a lawyer, went to Caracas and became a local representative for the French government prior to the French Revolution. He later traveled throughout the Spanish Main, detailing his journey in Voyage à la Partie Orientale de la Terre-Ferme, dans l'Amérique Méridionale, fait pendant les Années 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804, which was later translated in part by Washington Irving and Samuel Latham Mitchill, an American physician and naturalist.