County of statue: St. Louis Independent City
Location of statue: inside Tower Grove park, St. Louis
Artist: Ferdinand von Miller, II, 1842-1929, sculptor
Architect: George Ingham Barnett, 1815-1898
Founder: Royal Foundry
This is a very old postcard...yellow with age. The angle and head-on shot at the same...my photo is large, due to camera quality, but short is the same place.
Text on front of post card:
(bottom right):
Humbolt Monument
Tower Grove Park, St. Louis
(top edge):
[handwritten - cursive]
Written in German
Text on Rear of card:
(Printed Text):
("Postal Card. - Carte Postale.")
PRIVATE MAILING CARD
(Authorized by Act of Congress, May 12, 1898)
This side is exclusively for the address
(Handwritten Text):
Miss Lurse Kasirke
900 La Bates Crt.
Laguardia, N.Y.
[best I can make out]
Monument text:
(Front Base): ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
(base proper left): Mount Chimborazo relief plaque
(base proper right): Amazon River relief plaque
(base rear): [plaque relief of Shaw] - In honor of the most accomplished traveller [sic] of this or any other age erected by HENRY SHAW, 1876
(foundation front-plaque): Endowed by Tower Grove Park Commissioner Robert P. Stupp in recognition of the generations of the family of Johann Stupp, 2005
(foundation rear-plaque):
North and South plaques
found and restored 1995-97
In memory of
J. Milton Keller, JR.
Made possible by
Donald H. Bergmann
with help from
Friends of Tower Grove Park
German American Heritage Society
Victorian Society in America
"Early life
"Humboldt was the son of an officer in the army of Frederick the Great. His mother belonged to a family of Huguenots (French Protestants) who had left France after Louis XIV’s revocation, in 1685, of religious liberty for Protestants. After his father’s death in 1779, he and his brother Wilhelm were raised by their mother, an unemotional woman of strict Calvinist beliefs. They were privately educated; instruction in political history and economics was added to the usual courses in classics, languages, and mathematics, as their mother intended them to be qualified for high public positions. Alexander, a sickly child, at first was a poor student. He was restless, thought of joining the army, and followed his courses only under parental pressure. After futile studies in economics at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder he spent a year in Berlin, where he obtained some training in engineering and suddenly became passionately interested in botany. He began to collect plant specimens in the surroundings of Berlin and learned to classify them. But the poor flora of the province of Brandenburg did not provide much stimulus for an ardent botanist, and Humboldt soon dreamed of journeys to more exotic lands.
"A year spent at the University of Göttingen, from 1789 to 1790, finally opened the world of science to him; he became particularly interested in mineralogy and geology and decided to obtain a thorough training in these subjects by joining the School of Mines in Freiberg, Saxony, the first such establishment. Although founded only in 1766, the school had already acquired an international reputation. There, buttressed by a prodigious memory and driven by an unending thirst for knowledge, he began to develop his enormous capacity for work. After a morning spent underground in the mines, he attended classes for five or six hours in the afternoon and in the evening scoured the country for plants.
"He left Freiberg in 1792 after two years of intensive study but without taking a degree. A month later he obtained an appointment in the Mining Department of the Prussian government and departed for the remote Fichtel Mountains in the Margraviate of Ansbach-Bayreuth, which had only recently come into the possession of the Prussian kings. Here Humboldt came into his own; he travelled untiringly from one mine to the next, reorganizing the partly deserted and totally neglected pits, which produced mainly gold and copper. He supervised all mining activities, invented a safety lamp, and established, with his own funds, a technical school for young miners. Yet he did not intend to make mining his career." Encyclopedia Britannica
Proper Description:
"Full-length standing portrait of Alexander von Humboldt, leaning against a stump with his coat draped over it. His proper left foot is forward and his hands are clasped in front of his waist. He is wearing knee-high boots and short waistcoat. Bronze reliefs on the base include depictions of the Amazon River Vallery, Mount Chimborazo, and medallion of Henry Shaw, with text." ~ Smithsonian American Art Museum
Remarks:
"
The statue commemorates Alexander Von Humboldt (1769-1859). Born in Berlin, Germany, Humboldt had close ties to America. He knew and corresponded with Thomas Jefferson, Albert Gallatin, John Fremont, James Madison, and others, and was himself a noted scientist. Among his accomplishments, the ascension of the Chimborazo volcano and his encyclopedic "Kosmos." He was reportedly the first European to explore the Amazon River to its source. The monument, an important symbol of pride for the large German community in St. Louis, was erected by Henry Shaw, who established the park in 1868. The cost of the statue, excluding the base, was $5,000. The statue and reliefs were designed and cast by Miller at the Royal Bronze Foundry in Munich. George I. Barnett designed the statue's base.
The Amazon River plaque on the base was stolen in Dec. 1974; but was subsequently recovered in 1995. The Henry Shaw medallion, originally part of a larger plaque on the east side of the pedestal, was removed sometime in 1952 and was placed in the Memorial Tennis Court Building. The lower portion of the Shaw plaque, thought to be lost was rediscovered in storage in 1996. The entire Shaw plaque was restored, reinstalled and rededicated Oct. 26, 1997" ~ Smithsonian American Art Museum