![]() ![]() After the address, the crowd retired to the Horticultural Hall, where a palm frond that had rested on Humboldt’s coffin was displayed and, in the words of a Times correspondent, “an elegant collation was served.” President Ulysses S. ![]() This was attended by, among many others, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In Boston, another city Humboldt had never set foot in, the centenary was marked with a two-hour address delivered by Louis Agassiz. The whole city, according to the Times, “seemed to be in holiday dress.” Flags waved from public buildings, military bands played, and homes were decorated with Humboldt’s portrait. The unveiling was scheduled for 2 P.M., but long before the appointed hour, the paper reported, “an immense throng of people had gathered,” and when the statue was finally revealed “there were not less than 25,000 persons” in attendance. ![]() The following day, the Times devoted its entire front page to chronicling the festivities. On September 14, 1869, the centenary of Alexander von Humboldt’s birth was commemorated in New York-a city Humboldt had never visited-with a parade, a torchlight procession, a proclamation by the mayor, a formal banquet, and the unveiling of a bronze bust in Central Park. Humboldt passed along his love for the natural world to his many admirers. ![]()
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