Arnold Escher von der Linth

Arnold Escher von der Linth (1807 to 1872) was a Swiss geologist, born in Zurich, the son of the state councilor Konrad Escher, director of the Linth prison, and of the family of Hans Conrad Escher von der Linth. He was first educated at home, then at the Geneva Academy from 1825, where he heard lectures by de la Rive and de Candolle, and later enrolled at the University of Berlin, where he met Leopold von Buch and Alexander von Humboldt. He travelled around Europe in 1829 and 1830, made trips to the Italian Alps, Sicily and Vesuvius, and made the first ascent of the Lauteraarhorn in 1842. He became a private lecturer at the new university in Zurich in 1834 and in 1856 professor of geology at the Polytechnic School in Zurich, where he founded the Geological Institute. With Bernhard Studer he first explored the geology of the Swiss Alps systematically and produced a geological map of Switzerland in 1853, and he is regarded as one of the founders of Swiss geology.