Thaddäus Haenke
Thaddeus Xaverius Peregrinus Haenke (5 October 1761 – 4 November 1816) (
Biography
Haenke was born 5 October 1761 in the village of Kreibitz,
While still a student, Haenke made extensive botanical collections from what is now the Czech Republic; wrote a treatise on the botany of the Giant Mountains; edited an edition of Linnaeus' Genera Plantarum (published in 1791); and was awarded a silver medal from the Royal Czech Scientific Society. He was also an accomplished musician, a capable illustrator, and spoke five languages.[3][4]
Malaspina expedition
By 1789 Haenke was a prominent young scholar whose name was put forward by Jacquin and
Determined not to miss this opportunity, he took passage on another ship, intending to catch up with the expedition in Montevideo. This vessel was shipwrecked near his destination and Haenke was forced to swim for the shore, salvaging only his collecting equipment and his copy of Genera Plantarum. Again, he had just missed the expedition. After recuperating in Buenos Aires, he hired guides for a trek overland across the pampas and Andes, hoping to catch the expedition at Valparaiso. Along the way, Haenke managed to collect about 1400 plants, many of them new to science. Although his botanical work must have slowed them down, he managed to reach the coast in time to join Malaspina in April 1790.[3]
From there Haenke continued with the expedition for the next three years, collecting plants and recording his observations on botany, zoology, geology, and ethnology. They initially traveled up the west coast of the Americas as far as Alaska, then returned south to Acapulco and crossed the Pacific to explore the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand.
After crossing the Pacific, Haenke collected thousands of plants during their seven-month stay in the Philippines. Further collecting took place in Australia, New Zealand, and Tonga. In the summer of 1793 the expedition returned to Peru where Malaspina received orders to return home by way of Montevideo. Haenke was permitted to leave the ship with an assistant and cross overland to Buenos Aires with the intention of undertaking botanical and other scientific work along the way. Instead of rejoining the fleet again in the fall of 1794 as planned, Haenke became engrossed with the local botany and settled in Cochabamba, Bolivia to continue his scientific studies.
For the next quarter-century, Haenke continued his botanical exploration of Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. In 1801 he made one of his most memorable discoveries, the giant water lily, Victoria amazonica, with a six-foot wide lily pad. In addition, Haenke maintained his own botanic garden, owned a silver mine and served as the local physician in his adopted home town, Cochabamba. He is also credited with establishing the manufacture of saltpeter in Chile and helping to start the glass industry there.[4]
Although he had always hoped to return to Europe, Haenke died unexpectedly in 1816 when he was accidentally poisoned by his maid.[4]
Legacy
When Malaspina returned from his voyage he became embroiled in a dispute with Spain's minister,
Haenke's botanical collections consisting of more than 15.000 specimens were found in
- Presl, Carl Bořivoj. Reliquiae Haenkeanae: seu descriptiones et icones plantarum, quas in America meridionali et boreali, in insulis Philippinis et Marianis collegit Thaddaeus Haenke. J.G. Calve, Prague, 1830.
- Presl, Carl Bořivoj. Reliquiae Haenkeanae volume I
Haenke Island and Haenke Glacier in Alaska are named in his honor. A small private museum, "Muzeum Tadeáše Haenkeho", was established at Haenke's birth home in Chřibská, Czech Republic.
Around 240 taxa carry his name, including:
- Alpinia haenkei C.Presl
- Berberis haenkeana Presl ex Schult. f.
- Bromus haenkeanus (J.Presl) Kunth,
- Carex haenkeana C.Presl
- Ceratochloa haenkeana J.Presl
- Hymenoxys haenkeanaDC.
- Leptosolena haenkeiC.Presl
- Lobelia haenkeana A.DC.
- Loranthus haenkeanus Presl ex Schult.f.
- Mascagnia haenkeana W.R.Anderson
- Pseudogynoxys haenkei (DC.) Cabrera
- Pteris haenkeana C.Presl
- Salvia haenkei Benth.
- Schinopsis haenkeana Engl.
- Waltheria haenkeana D.Dietr.
See also
Notes
References
English
- Beidleman, Richard G. (2006). California's Frontier Naturalists. University of California Press. pp. 17–23. ISBN 9780520230101.
- Cutter, Donald C. (1983). "Haenke, Tadeo". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. University of Toronto.
- McKelvey, Susan Delano (1955). Botanical Exploration of the Trans-Mississippi West, 1790–1850. Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. pp. 15–25.
- Sterling, Keir B., ed. (1997). "Haenke, Thaddeus Peregrinus Xavierius". Biographical Dictionary of American and Canadian Naturalists and Environmentalists. Greenwood Press.
- Daum, Andreas (2019b). "German Naturalists in the Pacific around 1800: Entanglement, Autonomy, and a Transnational Culture of Expertise". In Berghoff, Hartmut (ed.). Explorations and Entanglements: Germans in Pacific Worlds from the Early Modern Period to World War I. Berghahn Books. pp. 79–102.
Non-English
- Kühnel, Josef: Thaddäus Haenke: Leben und Wirken eines Forschers. Munich: Lerche, 1960 (in German)
- Markstein, Heinz: Der sanfte Konquistador: die Geschichte des Thaddäus Xaverius Peregrinus Haenke. Stuttgart: Publ. Freies Geistesleben, 1991. ISBN 3-7725-1118-X(in German)
- Renée Gicklhorn, Thaddäus Haenkes Reisen und Arbeiten in Südamerika. Wiesbaden: F. Steiner, 1966.
- Frederik L. Kiziak, Alexander von Humboldt und Thaddäus Haenke. Reisetagebücher über Südamerika. Munich: GRIN Verlag, 2021. ISBN 9783346691804 (in German)
- María Victoria Ibáñez Montoya, Trabajos cientificos y correspondencia de Tadeo Haenke, Ministerio de Defensa & Museo Naval, La Expedicion Malaspina, 1789–1794, Tomo 4, Madrid, Barcelona: Lunwerg Editores, 1992.
- Renée Gicklhorn, "Neue Dokumente zum Beginn der Forschungsreisen von Thaddäus Haenke", Phyton 14 (1972), pp. 296–299.
- Andreas Daum, Alexander von Humboldt. Munich: C.H. Beck (2019a).
- Josef Haubelt, "Haenke, Born y Banks", Ibero-Americana Pragensia 4 (1970), pp. 179–197.
- Victoria Ibañez and Robert J. King, "A Letter from Thaddeus Haenke to Sir Joseph Banks", Archives of Natural History 23 (1996), pp. 255–260.
External links
- (in English, German, and Spanish) multilingual project « Mit Böhmen zum Meer: Thaddäus Haenke»
- (in German) History of the Haenke-portrait by Vinzenz Grüner, discussing its use and modifications by nationalists
- (in German) Vom Amazonas nach Leipzig und London
- Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1892. .