Jules Pierre Verreaux (24 August 1807 – 7 September 1873) was a French

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

and a professional collector of and trader in

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

specimens. He was the brother of

Édouard Verreaux Jean Baptiste Édouard Verreaux (16 September 1810 – 14 March 1868) was a French naturalist, taxidermist, collector, and dealer. Botanist and ornithologist Jules Verreaux was his older brother. Career In 1830, Verreaux travelled to South A ...

and nephew of

Pierre Antoine Delalande Pierre Antoine Delalande (27 March 1787 – 27 June 1823) was a French natural history, naturalist, Taxidermy, taxidermist, explorer and painter.

Career

Verreaux worked for the family business, Maison Verreaux, established in 1803 by his father, Jacques Philippe Verreaux, at

Place des Vosges The Place des Vosges (), originally the Place Royale, is the oldest planned square in Paris, France. It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris. It is the oldest ...

in Paris, which was the earliest known company that dealt in objects of natural history. The company funded collection expeditions to various parts of the world. Maison Verreaux sold many specimens to the

Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the Ja ...

to add to its collections. In 1830, while travelling in modern-day

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

, Verreaux witnessed the burial of a Tswana warrior. Verreaux returned to the burial site under cover of night to dig up the African's body where he retrieved the skin, the skull and a few bones. Verreaux intended to ship the body back to France and so prepared and preserved the African warrior's corpse by using metal wire as a spine, wooden boards as shoulder blades and newspaper as a stuffing material. Then he shipped the body to Paris along with a batch of stuffed animals in crates. In 1831, the African's body appeared in a showroom at No. 3, Rue Saint Fiacre. He was later known as

Negro of Banyoles The Negro of Banyoles (, or ) was a controversial piece of taxidermy of a San individual, which used to be a major attraction in the Darder Museum of Banyoles (Catalonia, Spain). In 2000, the remains of the man were sent to Botswana for burial. ...

, after being acquired by Francesc Darder, who exhibited it at the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition, and later moved it to the Darder Museum in Banyoles, Catalonia. It was only in the 1990s, following a campaign initiated by Dr Alphonse Arcelin, the mummified corpse was returned and buried in Botswana. Verreaux travelled to Australia in 1842 to collect

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

s. He returned to France in 1851 with a natural history collection reported to contain 15,000 items. In 1864 he took over from Florent Prévost as assistant naturalist at the Paris Museum. At the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1867, Verreaux exhibited the taxidermy group, "Lion Attacking a Dromedary." Verreaux also worked in China and South Africa, where he helped Andrew Smith found the

South African Museum The Iziko South African Museum, formerly the South African Museum (Afrikaans: Suid-Afrikaanse Museum), is a South African national museum located in Cape Town. The museum was founded in 1825, the first in the country. It has been on its present ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in 1825.

Legacy

He is commemorated in the names of: *

Verreaux's eagle Verreaux's eagle (''Aquila verreauxii'') is a large, mostly African, bird of prey. It is also called the black eagle, especially in southern Africa, not to be confused with the black eagle (''Ictinaetus malayensis'') of south and southeast Asia. ...

(''Aquila verreauxii)'', *

Verreaux's eagle-owl Verreaux's eagle-owl (''Ketupa lactea''), also commonly known as the milky eagle owl or giant eagle owl, is a member of the family Strigidae. This species is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. A member of the genus '' Ketupa'', it is the largest A ...

(''Bubo lacteus)'', *

Verreaux's coua Verreaux's coua (''Coua verreauxi'') is a species of cuckoo in the family Cuculidae. It is endemic to Madagascar. According to a BBC documentary, it is found only near a salt lake in the southern part of the island. The lake is 16 km long b ...

(''Coua verreauxi)'', * Verreaux's sifaka (''Propithecus verreauxi)'', *the white-tipped dove (''Leptotila verreauxi)'', *the golden parrotbill (''Paradoxornis verreauxi)'', *Verreaux's skink ('' Anomalopus verreauxii)'', and the *Andaman giant gecko ('' Gekko verreauxi)''. (''Gekko verreauxi'', new species, p. 546). *The Southern Conger Eel ''

Conger verreauxi The southern conger (''Conger verreauxi'') is a conger of the family Congridae The Congridae are the family of conger and garden eels. Congers are valuable and often large food fishes, while garden eels live in colonies, all protruding from t ...

'' Kaup, 1856 is also named after him.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verreaux, Jules 1807 births 1873 deaths 19th-century French zoologists 19th-century French naturalists French ornithologists French taxonomists French zoologists