A Recent International Conference about Reinhold and Georg Forster

Look what we've just missed out on!  Just happened to find out about this while researching ancestor Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg.  

This is a Google translate of the page - which was originally in German. How cool that Johann Reinhold and Georg are still recognised and significant!  

Around the World: International Conference on Georg and Johann Reinhold Forster

28.08.2018 by Laura Krauel

Georg and Johann Reinhold Forster are known for their world tours in the 18th century. A selection of their collected treasures can be found today in Halle and in the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz. From the 6th to the 8th of September the conference "Collected Worlds" will take place in Wörlitz. It is organized by the University of Halle, the Dessau-Wörlitz Commission and the Cultural Foundation Wörlitz. Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Décultot, Humboldt Professor at the MLU, explains exactly what this is all about.

Humboldt Professor Elisabeth Décultot is also involved with Johann Reinhold Forster. (Photo: Maike Glöckner)

Georg and Johann Reinhold Forster were scholars of the Enlightenment, who have sailed around the world as a naturalist on the side of James Cook. What significance do you have for Central Germany and the University of Halle?
Elisabeth Décultot: In 1775 the Forsters met Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau and his wife Luise in London and gave them some 40 rare, precious objects from the South Sea - for example a Tongan squid angel and jewelry from Tahiti. In 1779, at the invitation of the prince, they spent some time in Wörlitz. Especially Georg's father Johann Reinhold is closely related to the university. He was appointed to Halle the same year as Professor of Natural History and Mineralogy. He was also director of the Zoological and Mineralogical Collections and the Botanical Garden. He has collected many objects during his travels, which shed light on the history of natural history in the late 18th and early 19th century. At the Chair of Modern Literacy and European Knowledge Transfer, I am also working with my colleagues on his activities at the University of Halle. There is still much to discover - for example, how he enriched the Botanical and Mineralogical Collection and what has become of these objects.

In Wörlitz the treasures of Forsters are shown.
(Photo: Kulturstiftung Dessau-Wörlitz / Heinz Fräßdorf)

An exhibition opened in Wörlitz in May is dedicated to Georg Forster, while another will show the entire Wörlitzer Forster collection next year. What is the conference about?
Both Forsters are not only a magnet for scientific research, but also for the humanities - and for the history of science in general. For that reason, because they are real cosmopolitans. Their circumnavigation and the German-English biography are of global and European interest. For various reasons, they have also lived and worked in the region of Central Germany. At the conference we would like to take a closer look at these spatial dimensions. Another topic is their collection activities. What was the goal of Forsters? Did you collect the objects for ethnographic, aesthetic or scientific interest? Can one distinguish these categories altogether? These are questions we want to ask at the conference. It is also a kind of scientific preparation for the grand opening of the May 2019 collection exhibition.

What else makes the event interesting?
The conference brings together many representatives of national and international Forster research. It is also special that we look at both Forsters - not just the more famous son, but also his father. Her relationship is still under-researched, though she can elucidate certain facets of her life. This includes the ethnographic interest of Georg, which is reflected in his travelogues and on which his father Johann Reinhold had a great influence.

The meeting

"Johann Reinhold and Georg Forster - Collected Worlds" is aimed at scientists who deal with the life and work of Forsters, as well as to all other interested parties. The conference will take place from 6 to 8 September 2018 in the historic inn "Zum Eichenkranz" in Wörlitz.

Follow this link for more information on the conference and  how it relates to Johann Reinhold and Georg Forster. 

Meanwhile, on the Polish side of the Family . . .

I wonder if the organisers of the following event knew just how many of Johann Rheinhold Forster's descendants live in New Zealand  today - and I wonder how many of the descendants would have loved to have been there for this event, had they known about it - or  that they even were his descendants.   My revelation came through an ancestry website, otherwise I doubt I would ever have found out.  Yay for our ancestress Maria Mueller  (married name Baucke) and her thoroughly interesting forebears!

From  12 December, 2017 Southland Times: an article about the first Polish people in New Zealand  being acknowledged  245 years after their arrival here with Captain Cook on the Resolution. The event also celebrated 40 years of Polish - New Zealand diplomatic relations.

A plaque was placed on the Manapouri waterfront on Monday to remember a Polish father and son, whose discoveries included more than 100 New Zealand plants.

Part of The Polish Trails in New Zealand project, the plaque was in commemoration of Johann Reinhold Forster and J. Georg Forster who arrived in New Zealand on board Captain James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific.
The plaque was officially unveiled by Poland's New Zealand ambassador Zbigniew Gniatkowski and Southland District mayor Gary Tong at Pearl Harbour in Manapouri.

Photo: Barry Harcourt

Southland Mayor Gary Tong and Polish Ambassador Zbigniew Gniatkowski unveil the plaque celebrating two Polish botanists at Manapouri.

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Tong said the turnout was "very good", with Polish people coming from Invercargill and Winton to attend the ceremony.

Gniatkowski is believed to be taking in the scenery and "getting a feel" for the place the two men arrived at so many years prior.

Two hundred and forty-five years ago, Captain Cook's expedition ships the HMS Resolution and the HMS Adventure set sail for the Pacific.

Johann was an anthropologist and Georg, a writer, and while in New Zealand, they discovered 119 plants and 38 bird species in Dusky Sound, Fiordland, and Queen Charlotte Sound in the Marlborough Sounds.

Georg wrote about the journey in his book A Voyage Around the World. He was quickly considered one of the founders of modern scientific travel literature.

The plaque unveiling was designed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Poland-New Zealand diplomatic relations.
Ten plaques issued in memory of famous Poles have been unveiled throughout New Zealand so far. The Forsters' plaque was a continuation of that historical trail.

Tong said the unveiling was special as it was believed the Forsters were the first Polish people to arrive in New Zealand.

The father and son duo went on to return to England after the expedition. Johann then returned to Germany and was appointed to a chair at the University of Halle. He died there on December 9, 1798.

Georg regularly published essays on contemporary explorations and continued to be a very prolific translator, writing about Cook's third journey to the South Pacific. Georg died in 1794 in his Paris home.

The Benjamin Franklin Connection

Continuing on the maternal side of our family tree . . . researching Maria Baucke (born Mueller  Muller). Forster was Maria's great-grandfather (from my reckoning).

There is quite a lot of easily found information about Johann Rhienhold Forster, but this is particularly interesting. The following is a transcript of a letter from John /Johann  to Benjamin Franklin - one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.  It is not known if Franklin received or responded to this letter. 

This letter was written to Franklin during the time he was the ambassador to France from 1776 to 1785. 

5.Observations Made during a Voyage Round the World, on Physical Geography, Natural History and Ethnic Philosophy … (London, 1778). 

6. Johann Georg Adam Forster (1754–94) was Forster's oldest son,  who had accompanied him on Cook’s second voyage. Forster senior had expected to write the account of this voyage but  Cook was determined to do it himself, and Forster was forbidden from doing so by the Admiralty. So Forster  encouraged his son to write it instead. A short time before Cook’s narrative appeared, Georg Forster’s account was published under the title A Voyage Round the World, in His Britannic Majesty’s Sloop, Resolution … (London, 1777). The resulting furor led to Johann Reinhold’s imprisonment for debt and his son’s departure from England. 

7. Forster had four daughters. This one was most likely the second, Antonia Elisabeth Susanna (1758–1823). Apparently,  she left home at the beginning of September, 1776, having inherited her father’s roving spirit. She worked as a governess, first in Vienna, later in Copenhagen, Hanover, Courland, and Berlin. According to one report  “she was respected as a highly intelligent, informed companion and educator, although few failed to notice her fiery pride, and refusal to bow to the social conventions of the times.”

8. William Lee, who was in Vienna from the end of May until July, was an American diplomat. 

Meanwhile, on the German side of the family . . . (Maria Muller)

OK, this was  a really interesting discovery which just  continued to get increasingly interesting. Bear with me . . . 

Much as we always knew that the Naysmith side of the family was unequivocally of Scots origin, it was also interesting to discover more Scots ancestry on our paternal grandmother's side a  few generations back, namely the Williamsons and Mackenzies.  It now appears that our maternal  German side of the family has an equally legitimate claim to Scots heritage.  Go figure.  

Johann Heinrich Christophe Baucke, of whom much has already been discovered and written about, married Maria Muller (Mueller) (1821 - 1866)  a German nurse who arrived at the Chathams Islands pretty much as marriage fodder for any  one of the resident Lutheran missionaries - of whom she chose / accepted Johann Heinrich Christophe Baucke.  

Now, I've just discovered a bit of information on Maria's ancestry - which leads us back to Scotland. 

- Maria's mother was Wilhelmine Muller (born Sprengel) (1787 - 1874 - I wonder if she ever discovered that she outlived her daughter.) 

- Wilhelmine Sprengel - Muller's  mother (our Maria's grandmother) was Wilhelmine Concordia Sprengel (born Forster) (b. 1760)

- Wilhelmine Concordia  Forster-Sprengel's father was Johann Reinhold Forster (1729 - 1798). Forster didn't seem like a particularly Prussian  or Polish name. Turns out Johann Rienhold's ancestors emigrated from Scotland (there is some reference to emigrating from Yorkshire) in approximately 1642. 

Long story short . . . Johann Reinhold Forster was, amongst other things, a botanist and scientist and, in 1772, was appointed naturalist on Captain Cook's second voyage of discovery, on the Resolution, accompanied by his son Georg Forster.  He was appointed after Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander and James Lind pulled out.  Learning more about the voyage, and the conditions which Forster endured - it's easy to see why Banks et al were none to keen on the voyage. 

More about Johann and Georg soon - but don't get to excited about our illustrious ancestry - it seems that poor Johann  was not a popular passenger, and Cook's opinion of him is easily reflected in the lack of mention of him in Cook's journals . . . it's fascinating stuff. 

His portrait (with his son Georg) is hanging in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, and, it seems there is also a portrait in the London National Portrait Gallery. 

The French/ Italian artist Jean Rigaud (1742–1810) painted this portrait of Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg  in London, though the setting is in New Zealand. Johann is depicted with a sprig of Forstera sedifolia tucked in his hatband and a bellbird (Anthornis melanura) in his hand; specimens of a wattlebird, a saddleback and a honeyeater lie lifeless on the ground.