Event Calendar

The Invention of Nature, Alexander von Humboldt's New World, presented by the author, Andrea Wulf, a trained design historian at the Royal College of Art in London. This presentation is sponsored by the North Carolina Unit.

Lunch and Lecture: "The Invention of Nature" reveals the extraordinary life of the visionary German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and how he created the way we understand nature today. Though almost forgotten today, his name lingers everywhere from the Humboldt Current to the Humboldt penguin. Perceiving nature as an interconnected global force, Humboldt predicted human-induced climate change. He turned scientific observation into poetic narrative, and his writing inspired naturalist and poets such as Darwin, Wordsworth and Goethe. Wulf traces Humboldt's influences through the great minds he inspired in revolution, evolution, ecology, conservation, art and literature.