Federico Craveri (

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, 1815 –

Bra A bra, short for brassiere or brassière (, ; ), is a type of form-fitting underwear that is primarily used to support and cover a woman's breasts. A typical bra consists of a chest band that wraps around the torso, supporting two breast cups ...

, 1890) was an Italian

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

ethnographer Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

and

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 ...

noted for his studies in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Biography

Federico Craveri studied

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and

meteorology Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e. weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agricultur ...

at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

. In 1840 he moved to Mexico, which had recently gained independence from Spain. From 1840 until 1859 he taught chemistry at the

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. In Mexico, he obtained a graduation in Chemistry and Pharmacy. In 1847 he was joined in Mexico for two years by his brother Ettore, who shared similar interest in nature. Federico Craveri explored this country for a few years (1855–1857) to study its geology, with particular regard to the

Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt The Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (), also known as the Transvolcanic Belt and locally as the (''Snowy Mountain Range''), is an active volcanic belt that covers central-southern Mexico. Several of its highest peaks have snow all year long, and dur ...

. In Mexico as well in the United States Federico Craveri collected specimens of many animals and plants. These collections were placed, on his return to Italy, in the family home of

. For thirty years he took care of the classification of the material brought back from his travels, that included an extensive collection of birds notably

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

s. Until his death he taught at the University of Turin. The private collections of the Craveri family were donated to the town of

and now they are kept at the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Federico ed Ettore Craveri, which bears the name of both brothers. Part of the collections are also kept in the Museum of Natural History in Turin.

Travels

Federico Craveri accomplished three voyages of discovery in Northern and Central America. Following a mandate conferred by the Mexican government, in 1855 he first explored the islands of the Gulf of California in search of

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

then used as organic fertilizer. He explored the mining region of

Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities, and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales. It is located in northwest Mexic ...

succeeding in finding some new mines. The following year he explored the coasts of the Pacific and the Islands of

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

, until then little known and virtually uninhabited, but rich in birds and marine mammals. He discovered a new island to which he gave the name of Elide, in memory of his first tormented love. He returned to this island in 1857, taking possession in the name of the Mexican Government. Then he made a second expedition to the mining region of

.Biologia Marina – La scoperta di Baja California
/ref> In 1858 Federico Craveri left for San Francisco, went to

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...

and sailed up the

Fraser River The Fraser River () is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain (Canada), Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of V ...

. Finally he made an exploratory trip to the gold-mining region of California. In 1859 he reached Panama and then Cuba. He went up the

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

Saint Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the teachings of Jesus in the first-century world. For his contributions towards the New Testament, he is generally ...

. He sailed on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

and reached the

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...

. He then visited New York, Washington and Boston and finally on September 11, 1959 he returned to his father's birthplace in Italy, Bra, after 19 years of absence. During his travels, Craveri also discovered a new species of murrelet ('' Synthliboramphus craveri''), which in 1865 was described, named and dedicated to Federico Craveri and Ettore Craveri by the ornithologist

Tommaso Salvadori Count Adelardo Tommaso Salvadori Paleotti (30 September 1835 – 9 October 1923) was an Italian zoologist and ornithologist. Biography Salvadori was born in Porto San Giorgio, son of Count Luigi Salvadori and Ethelyn Welby, who was English. His ...

, in acknowledgment of the fact that the Craveri brothers had enriched the

Turin Museum of Natural History The Turin Museum of Natural History (Italian: ''Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali di Torino'' or MRSN) was established in 1978 to house the natural history collections of the University of Turin and other collections of natural history, origina ...

with many species of birds of Mexico and California. This bird is now known in North American literature as

Craveri's Murrelet Craveri's murrelet (''Synthliboramphus craveri'') is a small seabird which breeds on offshore islands in both the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California off the Baja peninsula of Mexico. It also wanders fairly regularly as far as central Calif ...

. The name of the Italian naturalist Craveri is also borne by an extinct crab ('' Retropluma craverii''), an extinct turtle (''Testudo craverii'') and an extinct cephalopod mollusk (''Sepia craverii''), from the tertiary period of Piedmont. Various species of Mexican diptera were dedicated to his brother Ettore Craveri ('' Tipula craverii'', '' Tabanus craverii'', '' Mallophora craverii'' and '' Diogmites craverii'').Luigi Bellardi - Saggio di ditterologia messicana - Memorie della Reale accademia delle scienze di Torino

Insect collections

General Insecta collections from Italy and Mexico collected by Frederico and Ettore are held by Museo Civico di Storia Naturale "Federico ed Ettore Craveri" (Bra) ; Coleoptera from Mexico are held by

Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova The Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria is a natural history museum in Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live wi ...

; Diptera from Mexico are in the

Luigi Bellardi Luigi Bellardi (18 May 1818 – 17 September 1889) was an Italian malacologist and entomologist who specialised in Diptera. Bellardi was born in Genoa and died in Turin. His collection is in the Turin Museum of Natural History In 1872, then a pr ...

, collection in Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali di Torino.

Bibliography

Fra indios e yankees. Viaggi in America di Federico Craveri.
Amministrazione comunale di Bra * Bowen, T. 2013. The type locality of Craveri's murrelet Synthliboramphus craveri. Marine Ornithology 41:49–54. * Edward S. Gruson (1972). Words for Birds. A Lexicon of North American Birds with Biographical Notes, Quadrangle Books (New York) : xiv + 305 p. * Federico Craver
Avventura ed esplorazione naturalistica in America Centrosettentrionale 1855-1859 - Giornale di Viaggio - Vol. I
Editore: Museo Civico Craveri-Bra * Storrs L. Olson
The name of then Craveri Brothers' Murrelet
Department of Vertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560 * Thomas Bowen, Enriqueta Velarde, Daniel W. Anderson, and Stephen A. Marlet
Federico Craveri and changes in nesting seabirds on Isla Rasa, Gulf of California, since 1856
* Velarde, E., C. J. Navarro, E. A. Ruiz, and A. Aguilar. 2011. The status of Craveri's murrelet Synthliboramphus craveri and reoccupation of a former nesting area. Marine Ornithology 39:269–273.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craveri, Federico 1815 births 1890 deaths Scientists from the Kingdom of Sardinia 19th-century Italian explorers Italian naturalists Scientists from Turin