Johan Adrian Jacobsen

Johan Adrian Jacobsen

Johan Adrian Jacobsen (1853 in Risøya, Tromsø – 1947) was a Norwegian ethnologist and adventurer. He is mainly known as a collector of ethnographical objects, and a recruiter of indigenous peoples for the ethnographical shows organized by Carl Hagenbeck, founder of Tierpark Hagenbeck, a zoo in Hamburg. Starting in mid-1881, Jacobsen was hired by the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde to gather ethnographic objects and other specimens. His travels took him from the Arctic to South America, North America, Korea, Japan, Siberia, and the South Sea Islands.

For seven years, beginning in 1867, Jacobsen was member of a whaling crew on the Spitsbergen and Murman coasts. In 1876/7 he traveled along the west coast of South America. When he returned to Hamburg in 1877, he was hired by Carl Hagenbeck to recruit Greenlanders for his live exhibitions of indigenous people. In 1880, once again on behalf of Hagenbeck, Jacobsen recruited a group of eight Labrador Inuit, among which was Abraham Ulrikab. Unfortunately, this show ended in tragedy as, within four months, all Inuit had been killed by smallpox.

In mid-1881, Jacobsen was engaged by the Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde to gather ethnographic and other specimens on the west coast of North America. For the next two years, he traveled through British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska. The museum later sent him on expeditions to Korea, Japan, Siberia, the South Sea Islands, etc.

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