Holub, Emil
HOLUB, EMIL (1847-1902), Bohemian traveller in southcentral Africa, was born at Holitz, eastern Bohemia, on the 7th of October 1847. He was educated at Prague University, where he graduated M.D. In 1872 he went to the Kimberley diamond-fields, and with the money earned by his practice as a surgeon undertook expeditions into the northern Transvaal, Mashonaland and through Bechuanaland to the Victoria Falls, making extensive natural history collections, which he brought to Europe in 1879 and distributed among over a hundred museums and schools. In 1883 he went back to South Africa with his wife, intending to cross the continent to Egypt. In June 1886 the party crossed the Zambezi west of the Victoria Falls, and explored the then almost unknown region between that river and its tributary the Kafue. When beyond the Kafue the camp was attacked by the Mashukulumbwe, and Holub was obliged to retrace his steps. He returned to Austria in 1887 with a collection of great scientific interest, of over 13,000 objects, now in various museums. Holub died at Vienna on the 21st of February 1902.
His principal works are: Eine Culturskizze des Marutse- Mambundareichs (Vienna, 1879); Sieben Jahre in Siidafrika, etc. (2 vols., Vienna, 1880-1881), of which an English translation appeared ; Die Colonisation Afrikas (Vienna, 1882) ; and Von der Kapstadt ins Land der Maschukulumbe (2 vols., Vienna, 1818-1890).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
