A Climate Scholar at Work: Colonel Weitzel in Batavia, 1858–1861

This wood engraving depicts a colonial officer reclining in a rocking chair, studying climate charts while fanned by an overhead apparatus. The print belongs to the Dutch tradition of political caricature, inheriting techniques from Gillray and Rowlandson while anticipating the comic-strip tradition's use of exaggerated posture and setting. The work captures mid-nineteenth-century anxieties about colonial governance, scientific inquiry, and conditions in the Dutch East Indies.