Consequently the claim that
Kotschy’s diaries had already been lost in transit arranged by the Imperial Russian Mission in Tehran and directed to
Vienna in late 1843 (Fenzl, 1867; Rechinger, 1960) does not seem well founded.
However, miscellaneous archival material referring to Kotschy’s travels in Iran exists in at least two institutions:
The Herbarium Haussknecht in Jena (JE) and the NHM in Vienna.
The archive of NHM for the history of science contains a splinter legacy of the botanist and explorer Theodor
Kotschy (1813 – 1866). The estate was completely digitized and partially transcribed from the Current.
Kotschy (1859, 1861a)’s papers contain so much detail that Kotschy must have had his diary at hand when writing
the texts sixteen years after he had climbed Mount Damavand and fourteen years after he had visited the Alborz
Mountains.
In addition, Kotschy’s biography includes several quotations which apparently have been taken verbatim from this
very diary. However, so far this diary has not been traced and seems to have been lost.
