Moritz Richard Schomburgk

Moritz Richard Schomburgk (5 October 1811 – 24 March 1891),[1] generally known as Richard Schomburgk, was a German botanist and curator of the Adelaide Botanic Garden.

Family

Schomburgk was born in Freyburg, Saxony, the son of Johann Friedrich Ludwig Schomburgk (a Lutheran minister in Thuringia),[2] and his wife Christiane Juliane Wilhelmine (née Krippendorf).[1]

He married Pauline Henriette Kneib (c. 1822 – 24 July 1879) at sea aboard Princess Louise. Among their children were:

  • Otto Heinrich Schomburgk (30 September 1857[3] – 1 September 1938), who held several important posts such as Chief Probation Officer with the South Australian public service.[4] He married Ada Louise Downer, daughter of Henry Downer. They had one son, Richard, and two daughters, Pauline Louise (Mrs Curwen) and Alice Marie (Mrs Howard).
  • Eldest daughter Marie Caroline Schomburgk (died 17 April 1913)[5] married widower Rev James Sunter in Sydney on 28 May 1894.
  • Second daughter Clara Louise Schomburgk married Alexander Philip on 3 November 1880.
  • Youngest daughter Hermine Rosalie Schomburgk married John Herbert Evans on 8 April 1891.

His older brother, Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (5 June 1804 – 11 March 1865), carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies (in which Schomburgk participated) and also fulfilled diplomatic missions for Great Britain in the Dominican Republic and Thailand. Another brother, Otto Alfred Carl Schomburgk (28 August 1810 – 16 August 1857), and his wife Maria Charlotte Schomburgk (née Von Selchow), arrived in South Australia with Moritz Richard Schomburgk aboard the Princess Louise in August 1849. His youngest brother, Julius Ludwig Schomburgk, (c. 1818 - 9 March 1893), was chief designer for noted Adelaide silversmith J. M. Wendt. A sister, Caroline Schomburgk ( – 15 November 1874), was the second wife of Rev. Dr. Carl Wilhelm Ludwig Muecke (16 July 1815 – 4 January 1898) of Tanunda, a fellow passenger on the Princess Louise.

Education

Schomburgk studied botany at Berlin and in the Royal Gardens at Potsdam.[2]

Career

In 1844 he went on the Prussian-British expedition to British Guiana and Brazil, led by his brother Robert. He collected for the Museum of the University of Berlin.

Australia

After the political turmoil in Europe in 1848, he emigrated to Gawler, South Australia; and, through this, he was one of a number of influential German-speaking residents — such as Ludwig Becker, Hermann Beckler, William Blandowski, Amalie Dietrich, Wilhelm Haacke, Diedrich Henne, Gerard Krefft, Johann Luehmann, Johann Menge, Carl Mücke (a.k.a. Muecke), Ludwig Preiss, Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker (a.k.a. Ruemker), Richard Wolfgang Semon, Karl Theodor Staiger, George Ulrich, Eugene von Guérard, Robert von Lendenfeld, Ferdinand von Mueller, Georg von Neumayer, and Carl Wilhelmi — who brought their "epistemic traditions" to Australia, and not only became "deeply entangled with the Australian colonial project", but also were "intricately involved in imagining, knowing and shaping colonial Australia" (Barrett, et al., 2018, p.2).[6]

In 1865, he became Director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden, a position he kept until his death and was succeeded by Maurice William Holtze.

Works

He wrote Versuch einer Zusammenstellung der Flora und Fauna von Britisch-Guiana (1848).

Death

Schomburgk died in Adelaide, South Australia.[1]

Taxon named in his honor

See also

Notes
  1. Middelmann, Raoul F. "Schomburgk, Moritz Richard (1811–1891)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  2. Mennell, Philip (1892). "Schomburgk, Richard Von" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  3. "Served Nearly 55 Years". The Observer (Adelaide). Vol. LXXXV, no. 4, 450. South Australia. 6 October 1928. p. 22. Retrieved 12 February 2023 – via National Library of Australia. A more complete biography.
  4. "Former Sheriff Dies, Aged 80". The Advertiser. Adelaide, S.A.: National Library of Australia. 1 September 1938. p. 18. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  5. "Family Notices". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. LV, no. 17, 007. South Australia. 19 April 1913. p. 18. Retrieved 12 February 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. In relation to "Australasia", another German-speaking explorer and geologist, Julius von Haast (1822-1887), was appointed as the inaugural Curator/Director of the Canterbury Museum, in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1867.
  7. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Schomburgk", p. 237).
  8. Species Ctenotus schomburgkii at The Reptile Database www.reptile-database-org.
  9. Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (22 September 2018). "Series EUPERCARIA (Incertae sedis): Families CALLANTHIIDAE, CENTROGENYIDAE, DINOLESTIDAE, DINOPERCIDAE, EMMELICHTHYIDAE, MALACANTHIDAE, MONODACTYLIDAE, MORONIDAE, PARASCORPIDIDAE, SCIAENIDAE and SILLAGINIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  10. International Plant Names Index.  M.R.Schomb.

References
  • Barrett, L., Eckstein, L., Hurley, A.W. & Schwarz A. (2018), "Remembering German-Australian Colonial Entanglement: An Introduction", Postcolonial Studies, Vol.21, No.1, (January 2018), pp.1-5. doi:10.1080/13688790.2018.1443671
  • Orchard, A.E. (1999) A History of Systematic Botany in Australia, in Flora of Australia Vol.1, 2nd ed., ABRS.
  • Roth, Walter E. (editor and translator) (1922–1923). Richard Schomburgk’s Travels in British Guiana 1840–1844. (2 volumes). Georgetown: Daily Chronicle Office.
  • "Robert Schomburgk and Richard Schomburgk" In: Taylor, Tom; Taylor, Michael (2011). Aves: A Survey of the Literature of Neotropical Ornithology. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Libraries.


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