German-language works by travellers and explorers in Alaska, the northwest coast of America, and its hinterland

From the 18th century onwards, German travellers were active participants in the scientific exploration of the northern Pacific and the coastal regions on either side of the Bering Strait in northern Siberia and northwest America. They observed, documented, and collected. Their natural-scientific and ethnological collections found their way into institutions and museums in Germany, Russia, and North America. Their voluminous written legacy, partly composed in German, was made available to the early international scientific community, but has never been republished. It contains the earliest ethnographical, historical, and natural-scientific discoveries about these regions of the world. The selected works by authors of different origins show how well-known and important all these enterprises were in their time and still are today.

Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Viola König, director of the Ethnologisches Museum
Partners: Georg Olms Verlag AG, Hildesheim
Funding: Fritz Thyssen Stiftung
Duration: 2006 bis 2020