Nathaniel Wallich
Nathaniel Wulff Wallich | |
---|---|
Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society | |
Author abbrev. (botany) | Wall.[1] |
Nathaniel Wolff Wallich
Early life and education
Nathaniel Wallich was born in
Wallich attended the Royal Academy of Surgeons[a] in Copenhagen, where his professors trained in the botanical science included Erik Viborg, Martin Vahl, Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher and Jens Wilken Hornemann.[5][2] He obtained the diploma from the Academy in 1806, and at the end of the year was appointed as surgeon in the Danish settlement at Serampore, then known as Frederiksnagore in Bengal.[2][5]
Career
Wallich sailed for
Service in East India Company
From August 1814, Wallich became an assistant surgeon in the East India Company's service and resigned as superintendent of the Indian Museum in December 1814.
First curator of Indian Museum
Wallich proposed the forming of a museum in a letter dated 2 February 1814 to the Council of the Asiatic Society. Wallich offered his services to the society and some items from his own collections for the museum. The society heartily supported the proposal and resolved to set up a museum and to appoint Wallich to be the honorary curator and then superintendent of the
Royal Botanical Garden, Calcutta
Wallich was also temporarily appointed superintendent of the
Wallich prepared a catalogue of more than 20,000 specimens, known informally as the "Wallich Catalogue". The specimens in the catalogue were either collected by Wallich himself or from other collectors around the same period, including Roxburgh, Gomez, Griffith and Wight. The collector of each specimen is clearly cited in the catalogue itself. Today, Wallich's personal collection is housed at the
He published two books, Tentamen Florae Nepalensis Illustratae and Plantae Asiaticae Rariores, and went on numerous expeditions. One of Wallich's greatest contributions to the field of plant exploration was the assistance he regularly offered to the many plant hunters who stopped in Calcutta on their way to the Himalayas.
The three volumes of Plantae Asiaticae Rariores made use of artists employed by the Calcutta Botanic Garden: 146 drawings by Gorachand, 109 by Vishnupersaud and one work by Rungiah (the artist employed by Robert Wight); the rest of the plates were by John Clark and three by William Griffith. Two hundred and fifty copies of the work were printed, of which 40 were purchased by the East India Company.[10]
Scholarly distinctions
Wallich received an M.D. from Aberdeen in 1819.
He was elected a Fellow of the
Retirement, death, and legacy
Wallich had suffered deteriorating health for many years, at one time contracting
Wallich remained in London until his death seven years later. He died at Gower Street in Bloomsbury on 28 April 1854 aged 68.[14] He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.
Part of Wallich's herbarium collections held at Kew, and known as the Wallich Herbarium, is the largest separate herbarium. Another part of the collection is the Central National Herbarium of the Botanical Survey of India in Calcutta, making in all about 20,500 specimens.[15][16] Wallich is also credited with the authorship of 35 papers, mostly botanical.[17]
Family
Wallich's was the maternal uncle of the Danish zoologist Theodore Cantor.[19] Wallich married Juliane Marie Hals (born 1797), later known as Mary Ann, on 30 May 1812, but she died only two months later. In 1815, Wallich married Sophia Collings (1797–1876). Together, they had seven children, two of whom died in infancy. Their eldest son George Charles became a distinguished oceanographer.[17]
Gallery
Species named for Nathaniel Wallich
See also
Film
- Morten Skriver (director): "Nathanial Wallich & Botanikkens Imperium", Zentropa Real (2003) (in Danish)
Explanatory notes
References
- Citations
- ISBN 1-84246-085-4.
- ^ a b c d e Taylor, Judith M.; Janick, Jules (2021). "Lorenzo Da Ponte and Nathaniel Wallich: Jews in the Enlightenment". Horthistoria.com. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
- ^ Taylor (2009), p. 103.
- ^ a b Kothari & Chhapgar (2009), p. 194.
- ^ a b c d e Indian Museum (1914), p. 104.
- ^ Hansen, Alfred (1974), "List of Danes honoured in naming of plant genera", Botanisk Tidsskrift, 69: 215
- ^ Delfs, Tobias (2021). "The German Network around the Danish Botanist and Superintendent of the Botanical Garden in Calcutta, Nathaniel Wallich (1786–1854)" (PDF). MIDA Archival Reflexicon: 1.
- ^ Official website of Indian Museum Archived 5 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine,Biography of Nathaniel Wallich
- ^ Numerical List of Dried Specimens of Plants in the Museum of the Honourable East India Company / Which Have Been Supplied by Dr. Wallich, Superintendent of the Botanic Garden at Calcutta. London, 1828–1849. (see External links below).
- ^ Desmond, Ray 1994. The European Discovery of the Indian Flora. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Comrie, John D. (1932). History of Scottish Medicine. Volume 2. London: Wellcome Historical Medical Museum.
- ^ Sangwan (1998), p. 226.
- ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
- ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
- ^ "The Wallich Catalogue". Wallich Catalogue Online. Retrieved 19 October 2016.
- ^ "Nathaniel Wallich". Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.
- ^ a b Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. About Nathaniel Wallich. "About Nathaniel Wallich | the Wallich Collection at Kew". Archived from the original on 17 October 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2016..
- ^ International Plant Names Index. Wall.
- ^ Natural History Publications Arising from Theodore Cantor’s Visit to Chusan, China, in 1840, Archives of natural history 43.1 (2016): 30–40 Edinburgh University Press, I. M. Turner, page 36
- Bibliography
- Kothari, Ashok S.; ISBN 9780198064657.
- Indian Museum (1914). "Nathaniel Wallich". The Indian Museum, 1814-1914. Calcutta: trustees of the Indian museum and printed at the Baptist mission Press. pp. 104–107.
- Sangwan, Satpal (1998). "8 From Gentlemen Amateurs to Professionals: Reassessing the Natural Science Tradition in Colonial India 1780-1840". Nature and the Orient: The Environmental History of South and Southeast Asia: Studies in social ecology and environmental history. Oxford University Press. pp. 210–236. ISBN 9780195638967.
- Taylor, Judith M. (2009). The Global Migrations of Ornamental Plants: How the World Got Into Your Garden. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. ISBN 9781930723696.
- Krieger, Martin (2022). Nathaniel Wallich: Global Botany in Nineteenth Century India. Routledge. ISBN 9781032377117.