Alberto Maria
De Agostini

Born in Pollone, in the Biella mountains, on Nov. 2, 1883, he consumed much of his existence in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, reconciling the vocation of missionary with that for scientific, geographical and anthropological research. He joined the Salesian congregation and was ordained a priest in 1909; in the following year he was sent on a mission to the Magellan lands where Joseph Fagnano had founded the first missionary settlements in 1886. His explorations in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago took place in the years between 1910 and 1929. In 1924 he brought to print the first of his major books on the region My Travels in Tierra del Fuego. His explorations in the Patagonian area began in 1916 and continued with mixed fortunes until the austral summer of 1943-44. Since those years, as he waited for events to ripen for the great return to Mount Sarmiento in 1956, which since the distant failed attempt of 1913 had still not been won, he devoted himself with greater vigor to the study, re-editing and publication of new volumes. His very rich photographic production reveals a remarkable aesthetic sensibility. He died in 1960 in Turin.