In May 1845 Sir John Franklin sailed westward from England in search of the Northwest Passage and was never seen again. Some thirty-five years later, Heinrich Klutschak of Prague, artist and surveyor on a small expedition led by Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka of the 3rd US Cavalr…
On the great Pacific discovery expeditions of the "long eighteenth century", naturalists for the first time were commonly found aboard ships sailing forth from European ports. Lured by intoxicating opportunities to discover exotic and perhaps lucrative flora and fauna unknown at…
"In the early eighteenth century, at the peak of the Enlightenment, an unlikely team of European scientists and naval officers set out on the world's first international, cooperative scientific expedition. Intent on making precise astronomical measurements at the Equator, they w…
Nabokov reist im Traum in das Innere Asiens
Sahibs in the desert -- Accumulating culture -- Gentlemen of empire -- The priceless nation -- Rise of the apprentices -- Foreign devils begone -- Conclusion. "From the early 1890s to World War I, countless manuscripts and artworks were taken from northwestern China and brought…