Where Our Sense of Self Comes From
How did a group of rebellious German playwrights, poets, and writers in the late 18th century revolutionize the way we think of ourselves and the world?
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Katie Martin / The Atlantic; Getty Walden Wasn’t Thoreau’s Masterpiece
In his 2-million-word journal, the transcendentalist discovered how to balance poetic wonder and scientific rigor as he explored the natural world.
Lisel Jane Ashlock The Unsung Hero of Western Science
A friend and pupil of Aristotle, Theophrastus isn’t always credited for launching botany, and much else.
Kupferstich / Leipzig University Library Thomas Jefferson's Quest to Prove America's Natural Superiority
French theorists said that American native species were inferior to European plants and animals—the former President went to great lengths to show that they were wrong.
Albert Bierstadt Venus, the Best and Brightest
A historian makes the case for Earth’s closest neighbor.
NASA The Woman Who Made Science Beautiful
Where others sought separation, Maria Sibylla Merian saw connection.
Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium / Albion Prints The Forgotten Father of Environmentalism
Alexander von Humboldt revolutionized the Western conception of nature by describing it as an interconnected living web—and in doing so, inspired thinkers from Darwin to Thoreau.
Friedrich Georg Weitsch
