Russians Visit the South Pacific
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	Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff (1774–1852) Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World, during the years 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, and 1807 London: H. Colburn, 1813–1814 NYPL, General Research Division A physician and naturalist, Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff left the University of Göttingen to join the first Russian circumnavigation of the world, organized and led by Adam Johann von Krusenstern (in Russian, Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern, 1770–1846), a Baltic German nobleman from the province of Estland (present-day Estonia). Like other explorers, von Langsdorff was struck by the practice of tattooing, which was widespread in the South Sea islands. He regarded tattooing as a substitute for clothing, and the complex symmetrical tattoos as the natives’ counterpart to expensive clothing in Europe.