Alpine Atmospheres and Sensescapes

John Tyndall’s Travel Reports about the Alps

Abstract

This paper analyses atmospheric phenomena and multisensory weather experiences as depicted by John Tyndall in The Glaciers of the Alps (1860) and Hours of Exercise in the Alps (1871). Particular attention is paid to the descriptive accuracy and hybrid character of these travel reports, which – typical for that time – juxtapose scientific observation, aesthetic evaluations, and metaphysical speculations on nature. On this basis the paper reconstructs the spatial concepts that underlie Tyndall’s books on the Alps. While the space as resource corresponds to nineteenth-century geography, the metamorphotic scape anticipates the present philosophy of space and non-human agency.