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Ludwig Leichhardt’s Australian letters

Ludwig Leichhardt’s Australian letters

Even before he departed for Australia, Ludwig Leichhardt kept in touch with his family via letters written during his travels. Between 23 March 1842 and 22 February 1848, he sent 17 letters back home from Australia; these letters document the period from his arrival on the continent until the disappearance of his final expedition. Leichhardt’s letters are an important source of information about his experiences, plans, and everyday concerns, as well as securing his reputation as a scientist.

Ludwig Leichhardt: A German Explorer’s Letters Home from Australia

Seventeen letters sent by Ludwig Leichhardt from 1842–48 vividly depict his stay in Australia. In this exhibition curated by historian Heike Hartmann, we are introducing a brand new English translation of the letters and a timeline tool with which to view those, this virtual exhibition documents Leichhardt’s adventurous stay in Australia and opens up new perspectives for the environmental history of the land, Europeans’ engagement with its indigenous population, and international scientific networks at the time.

Heike Hartmann

About the author

Hartmann, Heike
Hartmann, Heike

Deutsches Historisches Museum, Germany

Show more

Heike Hartmann is a museum curator and researcher in the field of cultural studies with a focus on visual culture, postcolonial criticism, and the transcultural history of science and archives. She was a member of the ATN-DAAD research project “Leichhardt’s Legacies: Locating the Disappeared,” curator of the exhibition “‘Gut möglich, dass meine Knochen für immer auf den Ebenen dieser Kolonie bleichen werden’: Der Australienforscher Ludwig Leichhardt” (Marstall Schloss Branitz, Cottbus, 2013), and editor of the accompanying volume Ludwig Leichhardt: Spuren eines Verschollenen.

Heike Hartmann is currently curating an exhibition on German colonialism at Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. She has contributed to a number of exhibitions, including Bilder verkehren: Postkarten in der visuellen Kultur des deutschen Kolonialismus (2005) and Karl May—Imaginary Journeys (2007), and she is coeditor of the volume Menschen—Orte—Zeiten: Fotografie am Deutschen Historischen Museum (2009).

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
Introduction
Leichhardt's biography
Botanical collection
Zoological collections
Indigenous knowledge
The journey of the letters
Leichhardt's legacy
Leichhardt's letters: A timeline
Further reading
About

Copyright Information

Copyright Information

The virtual exhibition Ludwig Leichhardt: A German Explorer’s Letters Home from Australia has been created by Heike Hartmann (2015) under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International license.

This refers only to the text and does not include any image rights. Please click on an image to view its individual rights status.

Ludwig Leichhardt: A German Explorer’s Letters Home from Australia

Seventeen letters sent by Ludwig Leichhardt from 1842–48 vividly depict his stay in Australia. In this exhibition curated by historian Heike Hartmann, we are introducing a brand new English translation of the letters and a timeline tool with which to view those, this virtual exhibition documents Leichhardt’s adventurous stay in Australia and opens up new perspectives for the environmental history of the land, Europeans’ engagement with its indigenous population, and international scientific networks at the time.

Heike Hartmann

About the author

Hartmann, Heike
Hartmann, Heike

Deutsches Historisches Museum, Germany

Show more

Heike Hartmann is a museum curator and researcher in the field of cultural studies with a focus on visual culture, postcolonial criticism, and the transcultural history of science and archives. She was a member of the ATN-DAAD research project “Leichhardt’s Legacies: Locating the Disappeared,” curator of the exhibition “‘Gut möglich, dass meine Knochen für immer auf den Ebenen dieser Kolonie bleichen werden’: Der Australienforscher Ludwig Leichhardt” (Marstall Schloss Branitz, Cottbus, 2013), and editor of the accompanying volume Ludwig Leichhardt: Spuren eines Verschollenen.

Heike Hartmann is currently curating an exhibition on German colonialism at Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. She has contributed to a number of exhibitions, including Bilder verkehren: Postkarten in der visuellen Kultur des deutschen Kolonialismus (2005) and Karl May—Imaginary Journeys (2007), and she is coeditor of the volume Menschen—Orte—Zeiten: Fotografie am Deutschen Historischen Museum (2009).

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
Introduction
Leichhardt's biography
Botanical collection
Zoological collections
Indigenous knowledge
The journey of the letters
Leichhardt's legacy
Leichhardt's letters: A timeline
Further reading
About

On the trail of the Port Essington Expedition: Ludwig Leichhardt’s legacy in northern Australia

On the trail of the Port Essington Expedition: Ludwig Leichhardt’s legacy in northern Australia

In this chapter of the virtual exhibition “Ludwig Leichhardt: A German Explorer’s Letters Home from Australia,” cultural studies researcher Heike Hartmann writes about the legacy of Dr. Leichhardt and his expeditions in Australia.

Ludwig Leichhardt: A German Explorer’s Letters Home from Australia

Seventeen letters sent by Ludwig Leichhardt from 1842–48 vividly depict his stay in Australia. In this exhibition curated by historian Heike Hartmann, we are introducing a brand new English translation of the letters and a timeline tool with which to view those, this virtual exhibition documents Leichhardt’s adventurous stay in Australia and opens up new perspectives for the environmental history of the land, Europeans’ engagement with its indigenous population, and international scientific networks at the time.

Heike Hartmann

About the author

Hartmann, Heike
Hartmann, Heike

Deutsches Historisches Museum, Germany

Show more

Heike Hartmann is a museum curator and researcher in the field of cultural studies with a focus on visual culture, postcolonial criticism, and the transcultural history of science and archives. She was a member of the ATN-DAAD research project “Leichhardt’s Legacies: Locating the Disappeared,” curator of the exhibition “‘Gut möglich, dass meine Knochen für immer auf den Ebenen dieser Kolonie bleichen werden’: Der Australienforscher Ludwig Leichhardt” (Marstall Schloss Branitz, Cottbus, 2013), and editor of the accompanying volume Ludwig Leichhardt: Spuren eines Verschollenen.

Heike Hartmann is currently curating an exhibition on German colonialism at Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. She has contributed to a number of exhibitions, including Bilder verkehren: Postkarten in der visuellen Kultur des deutschen Kolonialismus (2005) and Karl May—Imaginary Journeys (2007), and she is coeditor of the volume Menschen—Orte—Zeiten: Fotografie am Deutschen Historischen Museum (2009).

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
Introduction
Leichhardt's biography
Botanical collection
Zoological collections
Indigenous knowledge
The journey of the letters
Leichhardt's legacy
Leichhardt's letters: A timeline
Further reading
About

Travel and reception of Leichhardt’s letters to his family

Travel and reception of Leichhardt’s letters to his family

In this chapter of the virtual exhibition “Ludwig Leichhardt: A German Explorer’s Letters Home from Australia,” cultural studies researcher Heike Hartmann presents the traveps of Dr. Leichhardt’s letters—from the unexplored expanses of Australia to the archives of the Deutsches Museum.

Ludwig Leichhardt: A German Explorer’s Letters Home from Australia

Seventeen letters sent by Ludwig Leichhardt from 1842–48 vividly depict his stay in Australia. In this exhibition curated by historian Heike Hartmann, we are introducing a brand new English translation of the letters and a timeline tool with which to view those, this virtual exhibition documents Leichhardt’s adventurous stay in Australia and opens up new perspectives for the environmental history of the land, Europeans’ engagement with its indigenous population, and international scientific networks at the time.

Heike Hartmann

About the author

Hartmann, Heike
Hartmann, Heike

Deutsches Historisches Museum, Germany

Show more

Heike Hartmann is a museum curator and researcher in the field of cultural studies with a focus on visual culture, postcolonial criticism, and the transcultural history of science and archives. She was a member of the ATN-DAAD research project “Leichhardt’s Legacies: Locating the Disappeared,” curator of the exhibition “‘Gut möglich, dass meine Knochen für immer auf den Ebenen dieser Kolonie bleichen werden’: Der Australienforscher Ludwig Leichhardt” (Marstall Schloss Branitz, Cottbus, 2013), and editor of the accompanying volume Ludwig Leichhardt: Spuren eines Verschollenen.

Heike Hartmann is currently curating an exhibition on German colonialism at Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. She has contributed to a number of exhibitions, including Bilder verkehren: Postkarten in der visuellen Kultur des deutschen Kolonialismus (2005) and Karl May—Imaginary Journeys (2007), and she is coeditor of the volume Menschen—Orte—Zeiten: Fotografie am Deutschen Historischen Museum (2009).

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
Introduction
Leichhardt's biography
Botanical collection
Zoological collections
Indigenous knowledge
The journey of the letters
Leichhardt's legacy
Leichhardt's letters: A timeline
Further reading
About

About

About

This page presents the virtual exhibition “Ludwig Leichhardt: A German Explorer’s Letters Home from Australia” and its author—museum curator and cultural studies researcher Heike Hartmann.

Ludwig Leichhardt: A German Explorer’s Letters Home from Australia

Seventeen letters sent by Ludwig Leichhardt from 1842–48 vividly depict his stay in Australia. In this exhibition curated by historian Heike Hartmann, we are introducing a brand new English translation of the letters and a timeline tool with which to view those, this virtual exhibition documents Leichhardt’s adventurous stay in Australia and opens up new perspectives for the environmental history of the land, Europeans’ engagement with its indigenous population, and international scientific networks at the time.

Heike Hartmann

About the author

Hartmann, Heike
Hartmann, Heike

Deutsches Historisches Museum, Germany

Show more

Heike Hartmann is a museum curator and researcher in the field of cultural studies with a focus on visual culture, postcolonial criticism, and the transcultural history of science and archives. She was a member of the ATN-DAAD research project “Leichhardt’s Legacies: Locating the Disappeared,” curator of the exhibition “‘Gut möglich, dass meine Knochen für immer auf den Ebenen dieser Kolonie bleichen werden’: Der Australienforscher Ludwig Leichhardt” (Marstall Schloss Branitz, Cottbus, 2013), and editor of the accompanying volume Ludwig Leichhardt: Spuren eines Verschollenen.

Heike Hartmann is currently curating an exhibition on German colonialism at Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. She has contributed to a number of exhibitions, including Bilder verkehren: Postkarten in der visuellen Kultur des deutschen Kolonialismus (2005) and Karl May—Imaginary Journeys (2007), and she is coeditor of the volume Menschen—Orte—Zeiten: Fotografie am Deutschen Historischen Museum (2009).

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
Introduction
Leichhardt's biography
Botanical collection
Zoological collections
Indigenous knowledge
The journey of the letters
Leichhardt's legacy
Leichhardt's letters: A timeline
Further reading
About

Nina Möllers

Nina Möllers

This is a presentation of historian Nina Möllers—author of the virtual exhibition “Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in Our Hands.”

Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in Our Hands

Together with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, the Deutsches Museum hosted a major special exhibition on the Anthropocene from December 2014 – September 2016, which was curated by Nina Möllers. Coined by the atmospheric chemist and Nobel Prize laureate Paul J. Crutzen, the term “Anthropocene” describes the idea of a new geological era shaped by deep interventions into nature by humans as biological and geological agents.

Nina Möllers

About the author

Möllers, Nina
Möllers, Nina

Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich, Germany

Show more

Dr. Nina Möllers is head curator and project manager of the special exhibition “Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in Our Hands.” She studied in Palo Alto, Tübingen, and Nashville, Tennessee and received her PhD in 2007 with a dissertation on “Creoles of Color in New Orleans.”

As part of a post-doc project at the Deutsches Museum she curated a special exhibition on the history of energy consumption in private households. Her publications include the exhibition catalogs Kabelsalat: Energiekonsum im Haushalt (2012) and Willkommen im Anthropozän: Unsere Verantwortung für die Zukunft der Erde (2015).

She is grateful to Josephine Musil-Gutsch, Vanessa Osganian, Brenda Black, Helmuth Trischler, Iris Trautmann, Eliza Encheva, and Dorothea Föcking for their collaboration on this digital companion exhibition.

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
About the exhibition
Food
Evolution
Urbanization
Mobility
Clock of the Long Now
Nature
Anthropocene milestones
Humans and machines
Interview with Paul Crutzen

“A huge variety of possibilities”: Interview with Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen on his life, his career in research, and his views on the Anthropocene idea

“A huge variety of possibilities”: Interview with Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen on his life, his career in research, and his views on the Anthropocene idea

This interview with Paul Crutzen is a chapter of the virtual exhibition “Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in Our Hands”—written and curated by historian Nina Möllers.

Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in Our Hands

Together with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, the Deutsches Museum hosted a major special exhibition on the Anthropocene from December 2014 – September 2016, which was curated by Nina Möllers. Coined by the atmospheric chemist and Nobel Prize laureate Paul J. Crutzen, the term “Anthropocene” describes the idea of a new geological era shaped by deep interventions into nature by humans as biological and geological agents.

Nina Möllers

About the author

Möllers, Nina
Möllers, Nina

Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich, Germany

Show more

Dr. Nina Möllers is head curator and project manager of the special exhibition “Welcome to the Anthropocene: The Earth in Our Hands.” She studied in Palo Alto, Tübingen, and Nashville, Tennessee and received her PhD in 2007 with a dissertation on “Creoles of Color in New Orleans.”

As part of a post-doc project at the Deutsches Museum she curated a special exhibition on the history of energy consumption in private households. Her publications include the exhibition catalogs Kabelsalat: Energiekonsum im Haushalt (2012) and Willkommen im Anthropozän: Unsere Verantwortung für die Zukunft der Erde (2015).

She is grateful to Josephine Musil-Gutsch, Vanessa Osganian, Brenda Black, Helmuth Trischler, Iris Trautmann, Eliza Encheva, and Dorothea Föcking for their collaboration on this digital companion exhibition.

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
About the exhibition
Food
Evolution
Urbanization
Mobility
Clock of the Long Now
Nature
Anthropocene milestones
Humans and machines
Interview with Paul Crutzen

Documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films can be a means to disclose the elusive long-term effects of nuclear and chemical contamination. This is a chapter of the virtual exhibition “Representing Environmental Risk in the Landscapes of US Militarization,” written and curated by literary scholar Hsu Hsuan.

Representing Environmental Risk in the Landscapes of US Militarization

This virtual exhibition curated by literary scholar Hsuan Hsu examines the environmental impact of US military activities worldwide and how activists have used art and other forms of representational media to convey the harmful effects of militarization on the local population and landscape.

Hsuan Hsu

About the author

Hsu, Hsuan L.
Hsu, Hsuan L.

University of California, Davis, USA

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is an associate professor of English at the University of California, Davis and the author of Literature and the Production of Space in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Cambridge) and Sitting in Darkness: Mark Twain’s Asia and Comparative Racialization (NYU, forthcoming). He has published articles on cultures of environmental risk in Jump Cut, Discourse, Daedalus, and New Literary History and co-edited a special issue of Discourse on the topic of “Environment, Race, and Representation.”

Browse the exhibition

Exhibition Overview
Introduction
Bases
Nuclear colonialism
Aftermaths
Mapping
Monuments
Photography
Literature
Monster movies
Reclamations
Documentary film
The Environment & Society Portal is a project of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, an institute founded in 2009 as a joint initiative of LMU Munich and the Deutsches Museum. Read more about the Portal in English and in German.