Alberto Maria De Agostini

Alberto Maria de Agostini (2 November 1883 – 25 December 1960) was an Italian missionary priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco, born in Pollone, Piedmont, who worked as a mountaineer, explorer, geographer, ethnographer, photographer, and cinematographer.

De Agostini spent most of his working life as a missionary in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia, where he reached several mountain peaks, glaciers, and sounds for the first time and took part in the first full crossing of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, in 1931. In 1941 he was the first to write about the Cueva de las Manos rock art site. His photographs of the Tehuelche, Alacaluf, and Selknam peoples are considered an important record of groups that have since largely disappeared, and he was among the first to use aerial and colour photography in the region. He wrote several books and made a documentary film on Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The Alberto de Agostini National Park, in Chilean Tierra del Fuego, is named after him.

Life

De Agostini lived as a missionary in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia, between Chile and Argentina, where he was the first person to reach several mountain peaks, glaciers, and sounds, and discovered others, some of which were later named after him.

In January–February 1931, he, Egidio Feruglio, and the alpine mountain guides Croux and Bron were the first to fully cross the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, travelling from Lago Viedma in Argentina to the Patagonian channels on the Pacific coast of Chile and back.

In 1941, he was the first to write about Cueva de las Manos.

He also sustained a long and deep relationship with the native peoples of Tierra del Fuego.

According to Chile's national library, his photographs of the Tehuelche, Alacaluf, and Selkʼnam are an important record of peoples that have since largely disappeared. He was also among the first to use aerial and colour photography in the region, and his aerial photographs aided the cartographic survey of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.

He also left behind several books and written works in Italian, German, and Spanish, a collection of photographs, and a documentary film, all devoted to Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and the Fuegian peoples.

He died in Turin on Christmas Day, 1960.

The Alberto de Agostini National Park, in the western part of Tierra del Fuego, is named after him.

Published works

Books I miei viaggi nella Terra del Fuoco. Turin: G.B. Paravia, 1928. Guía Turística de Magallanes y Canales Fueguinos. Punta Arenas, Chile: published by the author, 1946. Guía Turística de los Lagos Australes Argentinos y Tierra del Fuego. Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos de la Publitipografía Isa de Vicente, 1945. Trent'anni nella Terra del Fuoco. Turin: SEI, 1955. Sfingi di ghiaccio: la scalata dei monti Sarmiento e Italia nella Terra del Fuoco. Turin: Ilte, 1958.

Films Terre Magellaniche (1933)