author
Pieter Johannes Veth
1814–1895
A leading Dutch scholar of geography, ethnology, and colonial studies, he helped shape how the Netherlands studied Indonesia and the wider world in the nineteenth century. He is also remembered as a founder and first chairman of the Royal Netherlands Geographical Society.
1 Audiobook
Uit Oost en West: verklaring van eenige uitheemsche woorden
by Pieter Johannes Veth
About the author
Born in Dordrecht on December 2, 1814, Pieter Johannes Veth became a prominent Dutch professor, writer, and scholar of geography and ethnology. He studied in Leiden and built a career that connected language study, history, and the cultures of the Dutch colonial world.
Veth is especially associated with the study of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. He wrote extensively on Java and colonial subjects, helped found the Royal Netherlands Geographical Society, and served as its first chairman, giving him a lasting place in the history of Dutch geography and ethnology.
He died in Arnhem on April 14, 1895. Today he is remembered less as a traveler than as a major organizer of knowledge: a scholar who gathered, interpreted, and popularized information about distant places for readers in the Netherlands.