Carl Wilhelmi, German naturalist in Australia: three autograph letters, signed, with significant content on Murray Aboriginal customs and botanical collecting. June 1860; September 1860; October 1871.

A$3,500 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

Signed

Carl Wilhelmi (1829-1884), German seedsman and botanical collector, arrived in Adelaide in March 1849, having been sent out to South Australia by the Dresden Lutheran Missionary Society. During his almost twenty-year sojourn in Australia, he made major contributions in the fields of both botanical science and anthropology. Early on, Wilhelmi collected botanical specimens extensively throughout South Australia, in particular along the lower Murray River to its mouth (1849-1851), on the Eyre Peninsula (1851) and in the colony s southeast (1853). He moved to Melbourne in 1854, where his scientific knowledge and connections saw him appointed Acting Government Botanist while von Mueller accompanied Gregory s expedition overland from Moreton Bay to Port Essington in 1854-55. He would retain his position as von Mueller s assistant up until his departure from Australia in 1869. In Victoria Wilhelmi collected in the Yarra Ranges, Western District, Wimmera and Pyrenees regions, as well as in Gippsland. In 1863 he visited New South Wales and made collections at Port Jackson. The largest collection of Wilhelmi s Australian plants is held in the National Herbarium of Victoria, Melbourne. The plants Acacia wilhelmiana and Verticordia wilhelmii are named after him. In the early 1850s Wilhelmi also served as assistant Protector of the Poonindie Mission on the Eyre Peninsula, where he developed a deep interest in Aboriginal culture. His first-hand observations of and insights into Aboriginal

• Binding: Hardcover

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