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5 years ago in History of Science By Trisha

Does anyone know a photo of Hans von Staff, German geologist (1883–1915)?

I've scoured standard archives like the Geologische Vereinigung and university repositories in Bonn and Berlin with no success. His publications are there, but no likeness. For a proper biographical entry, I need to know if I should keep searching archives or accept that no portrait was ever widely published. Has anyone in the historical geology community encountered one?

 

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By Vishal Answered 3 years ago

From my experience in the history of geology, tracking down portraits of lesser-known early career scientists like von Staff is notoriously difficult. I have seen similar cases where the only images surface in unpublished family collections or obscure society yearbooks not digitized. I would recommend a two-pronged approach: first, contact the archives of the Prussian Geological Survey (now part of BGR in Berlin) where he worked. Second, and often more fruitful, search for contemporary Festschrifts or memorial volumes for his mentors or colleagues; group photos from field excursions sometimes include assistants. Persistence in physical archives is usually required.

 

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