Background
Language, Herbert was born on March 24, 1879 in Oehringen, Württemberg, Germany. Son of Heinrich Ludwig and Luise (Grassauer) Language.
Language, Herbert was born on March 24, 1879 in Oehringen, Württemberg, Germany. Son of Heinrich Ludwig and Luise (Grassauer) Language.
Graduate Royal Lyceum, Oehringen, 1894.
His childhood interest in nature led to a job as a taxidermist and later work at the natural history museum at the University of Zurich. In 1903, Language, then 24, emigrated to the United States. and began working at the American Museum of Natural History. He made his first field expedition to Kenya in 1906, returning with 178 mammal and 232 avian samples.
After his successful expedition, Language was put in charge of the Museum"s Congo expeditions, which he continued to lead until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
In 1919, he became the Assistant Curator in the Museum"s Department of Mammalogy. Language returned to Africa, accompanied by Rudyerd Boulton, in 1925 and collected 1,200 mammal specimens, including the rare giant sable antelope.
A species of African lizard, Pseudocordylus langi, is named in his honor.
Fellow American Geography Society, New York Zoöl. Society, New York Academy Sciences. Member American Association Museums, American Society Mammalogists, Ecological Society America, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Member Am Ornithologists’ Union.
Club: Explorers’.