Heinrich Barth

Explorer, born in Hamburg, N Germany. After studying archaeology at Berlin, in 1849 he was appointed by the British government to a mission to C Africa to suppress slavery. He continued his explorations on his own, travelling nearly 12 000 mi. Afterwards he was appointed professor of geography at Berlin University.

Heinrich Barth (1821-1865), German explorer, was born at Hamburg on February 16, 1821, and educated at Berlin University, where he graduated in 1844.

From Tangier he made his way overland throughout the length of North Africa.

At the instance of Bunsen, the Prussian embassador to Westminster, and other scientists like Alexander v. Humboldt, Barth and Adolf Overweg, a Prussian astronomer, were appointed colleagues of James Richardson, an explorer of the Sahara who had been selected by the British government to open up commercial relations with the states of the central and western Sudan. The party left Tripoli early in 1850, but the deaths of Richardson (March 1851) and Overweg (September 1852) left Barth to carry on the mission alone.

In addition to journeys across the Sahara, Barth traversed the country from Lake Chad and Bagirmi on the east to Timbuktu on the west and Cameroon on the south.

The story of his travels was published simultaneously in English and German, under the title Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa (1857-1858, 5 vols.) which was considered one of the finest works of its kind at the time, appearing in Bibliographies by Darwin and still cited by African historians.

Except a title "CB" (Companion) from the Order of the Bath, Barth himself received no formal recognition of his services from the British government. In 1858 he undertook another journey in Asia Minor, and in 1862 visited Turkey in Europe.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.