Johann Gottlieb Georgi (1729 - 1802) was a German scientist and ethnographer. Born in Pomerania and educated at the Uppsala University (Sweden), Georgi was offered a position at the Russian Imperial Academy of Science and Arts, and arrived in Russia between 1768 and 1770. In 1770 he joined a scientific expedition organized by Peter Simon Pallas, and spent the next four years travelling to Astrakhan, the Ural mountains, and Siberia and studying both the natural environment and peoples of these regions. The observations and sketches he made during these travells were published in 1776 -1779 in four volumes entitled Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs, ihrer Lebensart, Religion, Gebräuche, Wohnungen, Kleidung und übrigen Merkwürdigkeiten (Description of all peoples living in the Russian Empire, their living, beliefs, customs, domiciles, cloths and other differences). The book included an account on the people of the Aleutian Islands, who Georgi called “Eastern Islanders,“ illustrated with two images: an Aleut/Unangan dignitary from the Rat Islands, and a kayaker.  Georgy provides no information about the source of this description and image, but both were likley derrived from published work and documentary collection of older fellow academician Gerhard-Friedrich Müller. The images could have also been influenced by ethnographic objects accumulated in the Academy of Science Museum (nowadays Kunstkamera). The kayaker’s attire and vessel, for instance, are fairely close representation of Unangan material culture, while the forested landscape beares no resemblance to the treeless Aleutian Islands.

Sources and literature

Georgi, Johann Gottlieb. Beschreibung aller Nationen des Russischen Reichs, ihrer Lebensart, Religion, Gebräuche, Wohnungen, Kleidung und übrigen Merkwürdigkeiten. C.W. Müller, St. Petersburg, 1780.

Georgi, Johann Gottlieb. Opisanie vsekh narodov v Rossiiskom gosudarstve zhivuschikh, a takzhe ikh obryadov, ver, obyknovenii, zhilisch, odezhd I prochikh dostopamyatnostei. Chast’ vtoraya. Onarodakh tatarskogo pelmeni I drugikh nereshennoio esche proishozhdeniya severnyh sibirskih [Description of all the peoples who live in Russian Empire, as well as their daily life, believes, customs, houses, clothing and other memorable characteristics]. Part two. On the Tatar and other north Siberian people with unknown origin]. St. Petersburg, 1776-1777.

Georgi, Johann Gottlieb. Opisanie vsekh narodov v Rossiiskom gosudarstve zhivuschikh, a takzhe ikh obryadov, ver, obyknovenii, zhilisch, odezhd I prochikh dostopamyatnostei. Chast’ vtoraya. Onarodakh tatarskogo pelmeni I drugikh nereshennoio esche proishozhdeniya severnyh sibirskih. [Description of all the peoples who live in Russian Empire, as well as their daily life, believes, customs, houses, clothing and other memorable characteristics]. Biblioteka Rusala, Moscow, 2007.