| INTRODUCTION In the archives of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden there is a map with three letters written by Alexander von Humboldt (17691859) to the first director of the Museum, Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778-1858). The map, the hard cover of John Gould's "Synopsis of the birds of Australia" (April 1837), bears the handwritten caption "correspondentie von Humboldt" (correspondence von Humboldt). Besides the letters of von Humboldt, the map contains three concepts of letters written by C. J. Temminck to A. von Humboldt. These letters were probably not the sole contacts that von Humboldt and Temminck ever had, for as early as 1790 von Humboldt already visited the Temminck family in Amsterdam. It is likely that there have been more... |
