Thomas Witlam Atkinson

Thomas Witlam Atkinson ( born March 6, 1799 in Yorkshire, † August 13 1861 in Kent ) was an English travel writer.

Atkinson was formed from the architect and built, among others, in Manchester a church. Except in his professional studies, he distinguished himself as a watercolor painter and decided vividly suggested by A. von Humboldt's descriptions of Central Asia, to paint the local scenery, although it was no capital to fund a trip to Asia.

After he made ​​in 1844 by St. Petersburg from a ramble through the Urals to the Altai, he returned to where he married a him like-minded enterprising Englishwoman who then accompanied him on his travels.

He was with her the following year already back in Siberia and the Kyrgyz steppes permeated by Kopal at the foot of the Kyrgyz Alatau, then the outermost Russian outpost to the south. In the summer of 1849 Atkinson visited the mountains Karatau, Alatau, Aktau and Mustau cruising past Khovd and Uliastai in the heart of Mongolia before.

In many winding paths and at great risk, he carried out a trip that in the Asian history of discovery has hardly second to none. The first time in Peter 's Geographic Releases (1872 ) laid down Itinerary includes on Chinese territory alone a length of 3,120 km. Of course, the science has been enriched in any way by Atkinson reports, since its purpose was only in the inclusion of drawings, which he brought back with close to 600.

The veracity of his reports has been questioned (eg by Peter Petrovich Semenov ). Atkinson returned to Europe in 1853. He says himself that he had during his seven years traveling to Russia 59,400 versts (about 63,400 km ) traveled. The report on these trips is included in the work of exploration in oriental and western Siberia (London 1858). A second work on the Amur ( Travels in the regions of the upper and lower Amoor. London 1860) is the only compilation work.

Thomas Witlam Atkinson died on 13 August 1861 in Kent.

  • Author
  • Literature ( English )
  • Literature (19th century)
  • Travel literature
  • Briton
  • English
  • Born in 1799
  • Died in 1861
  • Man
Watercolor painting Alexander von Humboldt Altai Mountains Kyrgyz Ala-Too Range Khovd (city) Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky Amur River Integrated Authority File
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