I am an art historian based in Lima, Peru. I am currently involved in protracted academic research on Juan Manuel Figueroa Aznar, an important photographer and painter active in Cuzco and Paucartambo during the first half of the twentieth century. I have reason to believe that at some time he became associated with the German explorer and geologist George M. Von Hassel (a.k.a. Jorge M Von Hassel), who performed very important services in the pioneer surveying of the Amazonian frontier lands.
Unfortunately, there seems to be very little documentation available on Georg Von Hassel, other than his own fascinating chronicles of the explorations he undertook under commission of the Peruvian government. We even lack the dates of his birth and his death.
Georg Von Hassel (or his wife, or his daughter) might have resided in the United States. Certain references in the Library of Congress database identify him with Fides Von Hassel. A person with that same name, but with an additional “l”, seems to be buried in the Fort Lincoln cemetery, at Brentwood, Prince George's County, in Maryland, according to the information published by
www.findagrave.com.
This was posted by Thomas Reachmack, whom I have been unable to contact. His entry further refers that “Mrs. Von Hassell was a dear friend of the John Reachmack family of Wahshington, D.C. She was a Peruvian and her husband was born in Germany and was a geologist”.
Any information regarding this matter would be most appreciated and duly acknowledged.