{"id":288,"date":"2023-05-09T14:42:48","date_gmt":"2023-05-09T18:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/?page_id=288"},"modified":"2024-01-12T10:59:19","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T15:59:19","slug":"humboldt-and-latin-america-1799-1804","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/humboldt-and-latin-america-1799-1804\/","title":{"rendered":"Humboldt and Latin America (1799-1804)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

With every foot of available space in his dugout canoe filled with caged exotic birds, botanical specimens, and monkeys (often left to roam about at will), Alexander von Humboldt made his way up Venezuela’s Orinoco River in 1800 (see the source ‘Map of Casiquiare Canal’). Despite the chaos of rapids, mosquitoes, jaguars, and alligators, Humboldt rarely failed to make and record measurements of barometric pressure, the magnetic field, and the air and water temperature with his many state-of-the-art apparata. All the while, he was mapping the river system, collecting rocks and fossils, and making ethnographic observations about the Indian peoples of the upper Orinoco. Two years later, after traveling throughout Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, and Peru, he climbed what was considered to be the tallest mountain in the world, the “Chimborazo peak” illustrated in the sources, setting a new altitude record at over 19,000 feet.<\/p>\n

From 1799-1804, Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and his partner Aime Bonpland engaged in a 6,000 mile journey around northern South America and Mexico. Humboldt, wealthy Prussian aristocrat, funded the expedition himself after receiving permission from the king of Spain to collect botanical and geological specimens from any part of Spanish America. In the course of the journey, they collected over 60,000 new plants, including 3,000 that were unknown in Europe. It was one of the first expeditions in modern Western history that was done solely for the purpose of scientific research.<\/p>\n

Humboldt, though trained as a geologist, was well versed in every field of natural history and tended to combine different disciplines in making his observations. He thus is considered to be the father of “plant geography,” and claimed to seek the “unity of nature” through observations about astronomy, botany, mineralogy, zoology, meteorology, and ethnology.<\/p>\n

He was immensely popular during his lifetime, with cities and institutions named in his honor from Prussia to Venezuela. His appeal was partially due to his striking achievements as a naturalist, but it was his spirit–which combined romanticism, the enlightenment, a love of adventure, and liberalism–that immortalized him. He stressed that humanity must appreciate the glories of nature and that scientific progress should be used to benefit all of mankind. According to the historian Douglas Botting, Humboldt’s liberalism and faith in reason led him to believe in the natural equality of all men. He was thus fiercely opposed to slavery and lamented the plight of the impoverished indigenous populations of Latin America, who he feared were rapidly losing their cultural identity and integrity due to European coercion (Botting 1973). Humboldt’s genuine awe about American nature, recorded in his multivolume Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent during the years 1799-1804, inspired other naturalists to visit the region, including Charles Darwin.<\/p>\n

For Latin Americans, Humboldt also represented a new kind of scientist. Though he was still a European working with the permission of the Spanish crown, his interest in South America was as a field in which science could be conducted, not merely a land from which to extract profitable plants and minerals. In this sense, Humboldt prefigured later scientists from Europe and the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as Hiram Bingham, whose scientific expeditions in Latin America earned them renown for purely scholastic discoveries. Latin America has become something of a laboratory where foreign archaeologists, anthropologists, mineralogists, botanists, and ecologists compete to extrapolate knowledge that benefits a scientific community which–to a large extent–continues to exclude Latin America.<\/p>\n

Questions for further exploration:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Darwin cites Humboldt seventeen times in his The Voyage of the Beagle. Using The Voyage of the Beagle and Humboldt’s Personal Narrative as sources, what parallels exist between the work of Humboldt and Darwin? Did Humboldt influence Darwin’s famous theory of evolution?<\/li>\n
  2. Humboldt’s “universal” approach to science stressed research and integration of all the known aspects of natural history in order to get at the larger cosmological picture. How does his work compare with that of creole and Spanish scientists working in Latin America during the late colonial era (such as Caldas, Mutis, and others)? Do Humboldt’s methods and cosmology have resonance with the larger pattern of Latin American science in the later colonial era, or was he using a distinctly European approach that was novel to Latin America?<\/li>\n
  3. How did Humboldt’s expedition to Latin America effect European perceptions of nature?<\/li>\n
  4. What evidence does Humboldt find in Latin American nature to support his ideas about the “unity of nature”? See his Personal Narrative, especially the introduction, for examples.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Further reading:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Botting, Douglas. Humboldt and the Cosmos. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1973.<\/p>\n

    Helferich, Gerald. Humboldt’s Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Latin American Journey that Changed the Way We See the World. New York: Gotham Books, 2004.<\/p>\n

    Sachs, Aaron. The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism. New York: Viking, 2006.<\/p>\n

    Taylor, Bayard. The Life, Travels And Books Of Alexander Von Humboldt. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2007.<\/p>\n

    Ugarte, J. Cremades, F.J. Dosil Mancilla, X.A. Fraga Vazquez, eds. Humboldt y la ciencia Espanola. Sada, A Coruna: Edicios do Castro, 2005.<\/p>\n

    von Humboldt, Alexander. Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tBasalt Rock Formations<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/strong>: 1803
    \nOwner<\/strong>: Wellcome Library, London
    \nSource Type<\/strong>: Images\n

    Humboldt’s drawing of basalt formations in northeast Mexico, published in his Vue des Cordilleres et Monuments de l’Amerique (1810), are from his 1803 foray in Mexico, a little documented stretch of his American odyssey. While in Mexico, Humboldt lectured at schools specializing in the useful art of mining, conducted much research on Aztec art, and made several excursions to mines and volcanoes throughout New Spain. His research led to the publication of the Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, which analyzed the geography, economy, and history of the viceroyalty. From Mexico, he traveled to the United States to meet with President Thomas Jefferson, who considered Humboldt the leading scientist of their era.<\/p>\nCITATION<\/strong>: Basalt Rock Formations. In Humboldt, Alexander von. Vue des Cordilleres. Volume 2, plate 22. \u00a0Credit: Wellcome Library, London. L0019403.
    \nDIGITAL ID<\/strong>: 12140\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tChimborazo Peak<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/strong>: 1864
    \nOwner<\/strong>: Henry G. Bohn
    \nSource Type<\/strong>: Images\n

    Mount Chimborazo was considered to be the tallest mountain on earth when Alexander von Humboldt traveled through Ecuador in 1802. After almost three years of traipsing across South America, Humboldt was in supreme physical shape and prolonged exposure to the high altitudes of the Andes had readied his body for the rigors of mountaineering. On May 26 of 1802, he summitted Mount Pinchina, a 15,672 foot volcano near Quito, and despite the dangers of the climb, he ascended the mountain again the very next day. The purpose of such climbs was to take precision measurements at the volcano’s mile-wide mouth, but they also prepared him to attempt Chimborazo.<\/p>\n

    On June 23rd, Humboldt, Bonpland, and a creole friend began the arduous ascent up the 20,702 foot mountain. Despite the hardships caused by exertion at high altitudes (Humboldt noted that their gums and lips were oozing blood) they made it closer to the peak, and further from world-wide sea level, than any previous mountaineer. The barometer they carried wit them affirmed they had reached 19,286 feet before they encountered an impassable chasm. Together they set an altitude record that would stand until surveys of the Himalayas revealed higher peaks thirty years later. Climbing Chimborazo made Humboldt an international celebrity and epitomized his blending of science, adventure, and a romanticist’s love of nature while “rediscovering” South America.<\/p>\nCITATION<\/strong>: Chimborazo. In Alexander Von Humboldt’s Views of Nature: or Contemplations on the Sublime Phenomena of Creation with Scientific Illustrations. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1850.
    \nDIGITAL ID<\/strong>: 12946\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tHumboldt and Bonpland<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/strong>: 1799
    \nOwner<\/strong>: Granger Collection, The
    \nSource Type<\/strong>: Images\n

    This painting shows Alexander von Humboldt and Aime Bonpland in a shelter on the upper Orinoco River, which they explored in 1800. The sheer volume of equipment that Humboldt brought on the expedition was remarkable and allowed him to take accurate measurements of the many aspects of nature that interested him, including the earth, air, animals, plants, and rocks. Among other items, Humboldt and Bonpland made use of sextants, quadrants, compasses, balances, microscopes, telescopes, barometers, cyanometers, eudiometers, hygrometers, thermometers, chronometers, manetometers, and a Leyden jar.<\/p>\n

    Scientific instruments from this era were generally very fragile and the fact that Humboldt was able to bring so many with him, even into remote backcountries, is a testament to his will to acquire precise scientific data. He made measurements multiple times a day of air pressure, air and water temperature, magnetic current, and geographic coordinates. In fact, he even hauled his glass barometer up Mt. Chimborazo with him, providing the proof he needed that he had reached a new record for mountaineers. Quantifiable data, as can only be achieved with accurate measurements, were the foundation of Humboldt’s Enlightened science.<\/p>\nCITATION<\/strong>: Alexander von Humboldt. German naturalist. Humboldt and Aime Bonpland on the Orinoco River in South America in 1799: line engraving, 19th century. Courtesy of the Granger Collection, NY. \u00a0ID: 0067924.
    \nDIGITAL ID<\/strong>: 12905\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tHumboldt’s Legacy<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/strong>: 1800
    \nOwner<\/strong>: Eppi
    \nSource Type<\/strong>: Images\n

    This bust of Alexander von Humboldt, located on the campus of the University of Havana, is one of many statues and monuments throughout the Americas that honor this German scientist. Although Humboldt’s popularity was due partly to his impact on science on the whole, his almost heroic legacy in Latin America stems from his interactions with the region’s nature and scientists at a time when a coherent Latin American identity was beginning to congeal. Humboldt helped shape science in Latin America into a unique and self-conscious entity, making Latin American scientists confident that they were capable of doing quality work independently of Europe.<\/p>\n

    According to historian Thomas F. Glick, Humboldt’s work in Latin America and his exchanges with local scientists had several important ramifications for Latin American science and society. For one, he gave creole scientists like Francisco Jose de Caldas a sense that, although they were isolated from Europe, their work was just as good as that of Europeans. Also, in his travels throughout South America, the Caribbean, and Mexico, Humboldt made Latin American scientists aware of each others’ work, creating national and regional scientific networks. Furthermore, he bolstered national pride in both local nature and local society, arguing that tropical nature was not in fact inferior to that of Europe and that Latin Americans should resist social injustices imposed upon them by Europe. Humboldt’s correlation of local science with political consciousness helps explain why so many scientists played leading roles in Latin America’s independence movements (Glick 1991).<\/p>\n

    Perhaps most importantly, the connections that Humboldt forged between Latin American and European science helped Latin American science recover from the devastation of the wars of independence. During the chaotic years of the independence struggle, many of the region’s leading scientists were killed, its scientific institutions were destroyed, and much of the infrastructure for supporting the sciences was undermined. Yet Humboldt’s expedition had sparked significant interest in Latin America among European naturalists, and many (like Darwin) embarked on their own voyages to Latin America soon after independence.<\/p>\n

    Although these scientists continued to form scientific bonds between the regions, European expeditions became more exploitative and biased as the century progressed. By the late nineteenth century, European scientists’ views of Latin America were again steeped in notions of tropical inferiority, a thinly veiled racism that Humboldt himself had argued against. The promise of scientific equality and interconnection between the tropics and Europe–Humboldt’s legacy in Latin America–was not shared by most of Humboldt’s successors.<\/p>\n

    Reference: Glick, Thomas F. “Science and Independence in Latin America (with Special Reference to New Granada).” In The Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 71, no. 2 (May 1991), pp. 307-334.<\/p>\nCITATION<\/strong>: Humboldt-Buste auf dem Campus der Universitat von Havanna\/ Cuba. Selbst fotografiert. November 2004. Eggi.
    \nDIGITAL ID<\/strong>: 13132\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tHumboldt’s Personal Narrative<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/strong>: 1852
    \nOwner<\/strong>: Henry G. Bohn
    \nSource Type<\/strong>: Publications\n

    This document is the introductory chapter to Humboldt’s multivolume Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent during the years 1799-1804. In this introduction, Humboldt outlined the itinerary of his five years of American exploration and detailed many of the experiments that he and Bonpland conducted while there. Humboldt also elucidated the tenets of his general philosophy about the unification of nature, the principle that there is an inherent interconnectedness between all things in the cosmos. This may be the single most cited source by historians and scientists attempting to explain Humboldt’s approach to the natural sciences.<\/p>\nCITATION<\/strong>: Humboldt, Alexander de. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent. London: Bohn, 1852. Vol 1, pp. ix-xxii.
    \nDIGITAL ID<\/strong>: 12964\n

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     <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tList of Instruments<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/strong>: 1814
    \nOwner<\/strong>: Longman
    \nSource Type<\/strong>: Publications\nThis document, found in the first chapter of the first volume of Humboldt’s Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent during the years 1799-1804 lists all of the state-of-the-art equipment that he brought with him to South America. The fact that he credited the designer of each piece conveys how little standardization existed among scientific instruments and the necessity of acquiring items made by the most skilled instrument makers. As a millionaire, Humboldt could afford the best that Europe had to offer, including instruments from England, France, Spain, and Germany. He describes in detail the function of any instrument that may be unknown to his readers.
    \n\u00a0
    \nCITATION<\/strong>: Humboldt, Alexander de. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent. London: Longman, 1814. pp. 33-39.\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

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    \"\"<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tOrinoco Map<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/strong>: 1813
    \nOwner<\/strong>: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale
    \nSource Type<\/strong>: Maps\n

    Alexander von Humboldt drew this picture for his Atlas geographique et physique du Nouveau Continent (Humboldt always wrote in French) based on the observations and astronomical sightings he made while traveling the minimally known Casiquiare Canal. The Casiquiare is a bifurcation (a river which connects two other rivers) between the Rio Negro–which leads into the Amazon–and the Orinoco. Although locals had long known about this waterway that unites South America’s two most important river systems, European geographers continued to deny its existence until Humboldt made his expedition public.<\/p>\n

    The jungles of the Casiquiare region were inhabited by isolated Indian tribes and a few missionaries sent there for penance. Despite the lush vegetation, Humboldt and Bonpland struggled to find food and noted that many of the locals practiced cannibalism. Nevertheless, he continued to collect live animals and preserved plants in his dugout canoe and made astronomical observations that charted the coordinates of land marks along the canal. As part of his vision of progress, Humboldt thought that the Casiquiare would become a highway for trade and travel between the Orinoco and the Amazon, connecting Venezuela and the Andes with Brazil. This vision was never realized, but this map and others elucidated territory long considered terra incognita and allowed for the collection of many hitherto unknown species of plants and animals.<\/p>\nCITATION<\/strong>: Humboldt, Alexander von. Carte du Cours de Rio Apure et d’une Partie de la Chaine des Montaignes de la Nouvelle Grenade, dressee par Alexandre de Humboldt. pl. 17. 1813. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Call number: Folio Q115 H84 1B.
    \nDIGITAL ID<\/strong>: 13052\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tPlamt Geography<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/strong>: 1805
    \nOwner<\/strong>: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale
    \nSource Type<\/strong>: Images\n

    Humboldt drew this diagram for his Atlas geographique et physique du Nouveau Continent as a visual aid explaining his concept of plant geography. The left-hand part of Chimborazo shows how the types of vegetation changed drastically with altitude and, in just a few vertical miles, several different plant-based ecosystems are present at the same tropical latitude. The base of the mountain consists of dense jungle while the highest regions resemble the artic. On the right-hand side of this diagram, Humboldt wrote out which plants were found in various areas throughout the mountain.<\/p>\n

    Plant geography is illustrative of Humboldt’s philosophy that nature, and all the sciences used to study its various aspects, were fundamentally interconnected and could only be understood in relation to each other. Thus plant geography studied not only the unique attributes of individual plants or the environment in which they grew, but focused on how an area’s botanical specimens impacted the natural (atmospheric, geological, zoological, etc.) and human worlds and, in turn, how these affected plant life. The fact that vegetation and a given environment determined the unique nature of each other reinforced Humboldt’s belief that the natural sciences required one to travel throughout the world, not merely study collected specimens from the safety of Europe.<\/p>\nCITATION<\/strong>: Bonpland, Aime. Geographie des plantes equinoxiales. \/ Tableau physiquw des Andes et Pays voisins\/ Dresse d’apres des Observations & des Mesures preises Sir les Lieux depuis le 10 degre de latitude boreale jusqu’au 10 de latitude australe en 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802 at 1803 par Alexandre de Humboldt et Aime Bonpland. Paris, 1805. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Call Number: Folio Q115 H84 5.
    \nDIGITAL ID<\/strong>: 12971\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tRio Negro<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tDate<\/strong>: 1852
    \nOwner<\/strong>: Henry G. Bohn
    \nSource Type<\/strong>: Publications\n

    This passage from Humboldt’s personal narrative focuses on his famous expedition into the Casiquiare, the bifurcation between the Amazon and Orinoco river systems. This is one of his most famous writings, describing the environment, climate, animals, and native peoples he encountered on his journey. It is a clear example of the breadth of Humboldt’s interests in the natural and human world and, despite its length, deserves to be read closely.<\/p>\nCITATION<\/strong>: Humboldt, Alexander von. Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America. London: Bohn, 1885. Vol 2, full: pp. 372-432.
    \nDIGITAL ID<\/strong>: 12967\n

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    \"\"<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tSource References<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\tWeb Sites
    \n<\/strong>Alexander von Humboldt in the Net (Universitat Potsdam)\n

    Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation)<\/p>\n

    Alexander von Humboldt, 1769-1859 (Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia)<\/p>\n

    Humboldt in English Project (Vanderbilt College of Arts and Science)<\/p>\nPublications
    \n<\/strong>Botting, Douglas. Humboldt and the Cosmos. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1973.\n

    De Terra, Halmut. Humboldt: The life and times of Alexander von Humboldt, 1769-1859. New York: Knopt, 1955.<\/p>\n

    Dolan, Edward. Green Universe: the Story of Alexander von Humboldt. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1959.<\/p>\n

    Helferich, Gerald. Humboldt’s Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Latin American Journey that Changed the Way We See the World. New York: Gotham Books, 2004.<\/p>\n

    Helferich, Gerard. Humboldt’s Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Latin American Journey that Changed the Way We See the World. New York: Gotham, 2004.<\/p>\n

    Nicolson, M. “Alexander von Humboldt, Humboldtian Science and the Origins of the study of Vegetation.” History of Science. 25 (1987): 167-194.<\/p>\n

    Sachs, Aaron. The Humboldt Current: Ninteenth Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism. New York: Viking, 2006.<\/p>\n

    Safier, Neil. “The Confines of Captaincy: Boundary Lines, Ethnographic Landscapes, and the Limits of Commerce in the Nineteenth-Century Pacific.” In The Imperial Map: Cartography and the Mastery of Empire. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009<\/p>\n

    Smith, Anthony. Explorers of the Amazon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.<\/p>\n

    Taylor, Bayard. The Life, Travels And Books Of Alexander Von Humboldt. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing, 2007.<\/p>\n

    Whitaker, Arthur P. “Alexander von Humboldt and Spanish America.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 104: 3 (June 1960): 317-322.<\/p>\n

    undefined<\/p>\n

    von Humboldt, Alexander. Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.<\/p>\n

    von Humboldt, Alexander. Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent. New York: Penguin Classics, 1996.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    With every foot of available space in his dugout canoe filled with caged exotic birds, botanical specimens, and monkeys (often left to roam about at will), Alexander von Humboldt made his way up Venezuela’s Orinoco River in 1800 (see the source ‘Map of Casiquiare Canal’). Despite the chaos of rapids, mosquitoes, jaguars, and alligators, Humboldt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-288","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537,"href":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/288\/revisions\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.usnh.edu\/hoslac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}