President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday received a copy of a historic piece of work that holds immense significance to the country’s history from the Guyana Heritage Society. The book, titled the “Twelve Views of the Interior and British Guyana”, was written by Robert Schomburgk, a German explorer who came on his first visit to Guyana in 1835.
President of the Guyana Heritage Society, Ben Ter Welle, said that while Schomburgk wrote many scientific publications, the book is a summary of all his travels around the country.
Schomburgk is also credited with the discovery of the giant water lily, the Victoria Regia Lily, in the Berbice River in 1837, which has become the country’s national flower.
Additionally, on his second visit of three years, he surveyed all the borders of what is at present Guyana.
The initiative to resuscitate Schomburgk’s work was one of then Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Gail Teixeira in 2004.
“Through the Heritage Society, along with funding from the German and Dutch Governments and the support of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and other stakeholders, we were able to reprint this book,” Ter Welle said.
Robert Schomburgk was born in the small town of Freiberg, Germany, in 1811, and started out his professional career as a gardener in a place called Merseburg. After an interlude of three years’ military service, he worked in the gardens of the King of Prussia.
The book will be formally launched on Thursday at the Umana Yana, Kingston.