Balduin Möllhausen

Balduin Möllhausen
Möllhausen, c. 1880

H. Balduin Möllhausen (born in Bonn, 27 January 1825; died Berlin, 28 May 1905) was a German writer, traveler and artist who visited the United States and wrote novels based on his experiences.

Financial concerns obligated him to terminate his gymnasium studies in Bonn prematurely. He worked some at agriculture in Pomerania, then went (1850) to North America, joining (1851) Duke Paul of Württemberg and his party in the Rocky Mountains. He was wounded by Indians but, after five months, navigated the Mississippi River to New Orleans.

Back in Berlin in early 1853, he met Alexander von Humboldt and became his house guest. At the instigation of Humboldt, he became topographer and draughtsman for a scientific expedition to the far west of the United States under Lieutenant Amiel W. Whipple, departing May 1853, and returning in 1854, via San Francisco and the Isthmus of Panama, to Germany, where he was appointed custodian of libraries in Potsdam by Frederick William IV of Prussia at the urging of Humboldt. On February 6, 1855, he married Carolina Alexandra Seifert, Humboldt's ward, who he had met while living in Humboldt's household.

He made another trip (1857–58) to North America accompanying an expedition under Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives exploring central Colorado and the Colorado River. His remaining years were spent mostly at home writing, which his position as library custodian provided the leisure for.