Charles Dietrich Eberhard Konig or Karl Dietrich Eberhard König, KH (1774 – 6 September 1851) was a German

naturalist 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 ...

. He was born in Brunswick and educated at

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. He came to

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at the end of 1800 to organize the collections of

Queen Charlotte Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818) was Queen of Great Britain and Ireland as the wife of King George III from their marriage on 8 September 1761 until her death in 1818. The Acts of Un ...

. On the completion of this work he became assistant to Dryander, librarian to

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...

. In 1807, he succeeded George Shaw as assistant keeper of the department of natural history in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

. On the death of his superior in 1813, he took his place as keeper. He later became keeper of geology and mineralogy, and turned his attention to minerals and fossils, arranging the recently acquired collection of Mr. Greville. He retained the post until his sudden death in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1851. Konig anglicized his name upon his appointment as assistant keeper in 1807. In 1837, following a

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

Select committee report on the British Museum, the Department of Natural History was divided into three branches, with Konig being put in charge of the Mineralogical and Geological branch. Besides writing various papers for journals, Konig was associated with John Sims in the issue of ''

Annals of Botany ''Annals of Botany'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing experimental, theoretical and applied papers on all aspects of plant biology. As of 2024, the Chief Editor is Rowan Sage. The journal is owned and managed by thAnnals o ...

'' from 1805 to 1807. He described many

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s in the British Museum in a classic work entitled ''Icones fossilium sectiles'' (1820–1825).

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Charles 1774 births 1851 deaths Scientists from Braunschweig People from Brunswick-Lüneburg Fellows of the Royal Society Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences 19th-century German geologists 18th-century German naturalists Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Employees of the British Museum University of Göttingen alumni Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to the Kingdom of Great Britain