Stubel, Moritz Alphons b. July 26, 1835; Leipzig, Saxony d. November 10, 1904; Dresden, Saxony
German geologist and explorer in South America, founder of a geographical museum in Leipzig. Stubel was the son of the lawyer and Leipzig city councilor Otto Moritz Stubel. His life has remarkable parallels with that of his future fellow traveler, Wilhelm Reiss.
Like Reiss, Stubel studied mineralogy and geology, first at the University of Leipzig and then in Heidelberg, where he completed his doctorate in 1860. His studies were interrupted by two and a half years of travel in the Mediterranean to improve his weak constitution in a warmer climate, like Reiss. From 1856 to 1859 he traveled to Italy, Greece, Egypt, and Sudan, where his interests were already primarily directed toward volcanism. His inherited fortune enabled him to pursue his scientific interests on further journeys abroad. After a visit to Scotland he moved to Madeira in 1862. Here he observed nature (climate, vegetation, geology), surveyed and mapped the island, prepared panoramic drawings, and studied volcanism, to which end he also visited Cape Verde and the Canary Islands. He established contacts with other geologists for the purpose of scientific exchange, including Karl von Fritsch and Wilhelm Reiss, with whom he set out for the Aegean in 1865 to study the effects of the volcanic eruption on Santorini. On their return, Stubel and Reiss began to plan their great trip to America, their intended destination being the Hawaiian Islands, after a detour to South America.In January 1868 the two scientists started their journey, but they never saw the Hawaiian Islands, as their planned detour to the Andes turned into a nine-year stay. From Santa Marta on the Colombian coast they followed the Rio Magdalena into the interior. They spent two years traveling in Colombia, sometimes separately, followed by four and a half years in Ecuador. Under difficult conditions, they ascended almost all the volcanic mountains over 4,000 meters (13,123 feet).
While Reiss devoted himself mainly to trigonometric observations, Stubel drew large panoramic views, whose great accuracy gives them the appearance of perspective maps. In Quito Stubel became acquainted with the geologist Theodor Wolf, who taught at the local university. Wolf supported the two travelers in Quito and assisted Stubel with the analysis of his findings after the latter returned to Germany.Stubel trained the young Ecuadorian Rafael Troya as a landscape artist. Stubel sent several consignments of his own drawings, Troya’s paintings, geological samples, and other materials to Dresden. When Reiss and Stubel were forced to stay in Peru in 1874 because of political unrest, they undertook archaeological excavations in Ancon and found an old Peruvian burial ground. They opened about sixty graves and found splendidly arrayed corpses with burial gifts. They described the contents of the graves in detail and later published them in a handsome three-volume work with the support of the Berlin Museum of Ethnology (Das Todtenfeld von Ancon [The Burial Ground of Ancon] 1880—1887). From Peru Stubel and Reiss crossed the Andes and traveled through the tropical rain forest to the Atlantic. While Reiss was at the end of his strength and left from Rio de Janeiro to return home in 1876, Stubel spent a further year in South America. He traveled along the Parana to Rosario via Montevideo and Buenos Aires and went on by rail to Mendoza. From here he crossed the Cordilleras. In Chile and in Bolivia he again pursued research into volcanism, studied the consequences of an earthquake in Arica, and examined the ruins of Tiahuanaco. He then left for home from Lima. He traveled by ship to San Francisco—where the equipment sent ten years previously for the planned Hawaii expedition was still in storage—crossed the United States, and sailed from New York to Europe on July 11, 1877.
In Dresden Stubel analyzed the large collections of materials from South America.
More than 200 boxes had to be sorted and evaluated. The work proceeded slowly; the first important publication was that on Ancon, appearing from 1880 onward, with more than 141 colored lithographs. The analysis of the geological material took much longer. The great extent of the materials, the development of geological theory during his stay in South America (which caused him to question his own views), further expeditions (Stubel traveled to Syria and Palestine in 1882 and to Egypt in 1885), and a growing estrangement from Reiss hindered systematic study. Nevertheless, Stubel, unlike Reiss, succeeded in publishing a series of monographs (Die Ru- inenstatte von Tiahuanaco im Hochlande des alten Peru [The Ruins of Tiahuanaco in the Highlands of Old Peru], together with Max Uhle 1892; Die Vulcanberge von Ecuador [The Volcanic Mountains of Ecuador], 1897).Stubel had by now developed a plan to present his collections to the public in the form of a museum of geography and volcanology. In 1891 Stubel addressed a memorandum to the city council of his birthplace, Leipzig, offering to present his collections to the city in return for a suitable museum space. The city council agreed to this and when a new building for the Museum of Ethnology was opened in 1896 the Stubel Collections found a home as the Abtheilung fur vergleichende Lan- derkunde (Department of Comparative Regional Geography) in a separate room of 350 square meters (376.7 square feet). Stu- bel’s donation included 82 oil paintings by Troya, 100 drawings including more than 30 large-format Andean panoramas, about 2,000 photographs and 3,000 geological samples, as well as ethnological artifacts. He developed this unique geographical museum with his own funds, including a library with a map collection, also developed from his private collection. His expedition notes formed the basis of an Archiv fur Forschungsreisende (Archives of Explorers) opened in 1902. An endowment made by his sister enabled the collections to be continued and expanded after Stubel’s death.
Thus a unique museum, unparalleled in the world, developed from Stubel’s private gift and remained in Leipzig until the mid-1970s, before being dissolved in the course of the East German university reforms. The library was retained with its great nineteenth-century collection, as well as the archives with Stubel’s scientific estate and a large collection of photographs. Now these collections are part of the Leibniz-In- stitut fur Landerkunde in Leipzig.Heinz Peter Brogiato
See also Reiss, Johann Wilhelm
References and Further Reading Brockmann, Andreas, and Michaela Stuttgen, eds. Spurensuche. Zwei Erdwissenschaftler im Sudamerika des 19. Jahrhunderts. Ausstellungskatalog. Unna: Kreisverwaltung, 1994.
Henze, Dietmar. Enzyklopadie der Entdecker und Erforscher der Erde. Vol. V. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 2004, pp. 256-260.
Mayr, Alois, ed. 100 Jahre Institut fur Landerkunde 1896—1996. Entwicklung und Perspektiven. Festschrift. Beitrage zur Regionalen Geographie, 40. Leipzig: Institut fur Landerkunde, 1996.