Hello all,

by chance I just came accross this comment by one of the greatest minds 
in science, describing of the joys and frustrations of public science 
engagement activities: Alexander von Humboldt, writing about his work 
South America in 1799-1804. I thought it might be of interest to the 
science engagement community, as it isn't well-known, although it may be 
one of the earliest accounts of public engagement:

"... our physical and astronomical instruments in their turns excited 
strongly the curiosity of the inhabitants. We were distracted by 
frequent visits; and in order not to dissatisfy persons, who appeared so 
happy to see the spots of the Moon through Dollond's telescope, the 
absorption of two gazes in a eudiometrical tube, or the effects of 
galvanism on the motions of a frog, we were obliged to answer questions 
often obscure, and repeat for whole hours the same experiments.

These scenes were renewed for the space of five years, every time that 
we took up our abode in a place where it was understood, that we were in 
possession of microscopes, telescopes, and electrical apparatus. They 
were in general so much the more fatiguing, as the person who visited us 
had confused notions of astronomy and physics; two sciences, which in 
the Spanish colonies are designated under the singular name of the new 
philosophy, nueva filosophia. The half-scientific looked on us with a 
sort of disdain, when they learnt that we had not brought in our 
collection of books the Spectacle de la Nature by Abbé Pluche, the Cours 
de Physique of Sigaud la Fond, or the Dictionary of Valmont de Bomare. 
These three works, and the Traité d`Economie politique of Baron 
Bielfeld, are the foreign, works most known and esteemed in Spanish 
America, from Caraccas and Chili to Guatimala and the north of Mexico. 
No one is thought learned, who cannot quote their translations; and it 
is only in the great capitals, at Lima, at Santa Fe de Bogota, and at 
Mexico, that the names of Haller, Cavendish, and Lavoisier, begin to 
take the place of those, that have enjoyed popular celebrity for these 
fifty years past.

The curiosity excited respecting the phenomena of the heavens, and 
various objects of the natural sciences, takes a very different 
character among anciently civilized nations, and among those who have 
made but little progress in the unfolding of their intellectual 
faculties. Each of them exhibits in the highest classes of society 
frequent examples of persons unacquainted with science; but in the 
colonies, and among new people, curiosity, far from being idle or 
transient, arises from an ardent desire of instruction, and discovers 
itself with an ingenuousness and simplicity, which in Europe are the 
characteristics only of youth."

From: Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the 
New Continent during the Years 1799-1804, Vol 2, pp 232-234.
Online available from: http://www.avhumboldt.net/humboldt/publications/

Of course, nowadays we are so fortunate that nobody looks at us in 
disdain with any kind of anti-scientific attitude, the highest classes 
of society are all well-acquainted with science, and even in Europe 
people now have an ardent desire to learn and discover things. How 
things have changed!

Cheers
Stephan

PS: I thouroughly can recommend his book. I only skipped through it 
looking for some info I need for a project, but even then it is 
fascinating and shows the insights of somebody who is not only 
passionate about science, but also about the people around him.

-- 
Stephan Matthiesen
http://www.stephan-matthiesen.de
Neu auf www.science-texts.de: Gestreift - Muster 11/2010

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