Jiří Baum (20 September 1900 – 1944, Warsaw) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

zoologist Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...

, arachnologist,

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

curator, explorer and writer. He served as the collector of the zoological department of 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 ...

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

and is best known in his field for his 1933 book ''Through the African Wilderness'' and his 1935 zoological expedition in the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

. Baum was born in Prague in a business family. His father Josef Baum was a meat trader in Královské Vinohrady while his Františka Baumová was from a farming family in Nadějka. He went to the local grammar school before going to study in a business academy. In 1921 he and a classmate Viktor Mayer applied for a scholarship to the United States of America and he there for further studies. In 1922 he went to Brazil along with his sister Anna and her husband Robert Pollert to establish a farm. On returning he joined the natural sciences faculty at Charles University with a special interest in the arthropods. He travelled to Brazil in 1923-24 and West Africa in 1927 along with

Albert Pilát Albert Pilát (November 2, 1903 – May 29, 1974) was a Czech botany, botanist and mycology, mycologist. He studied at the Faculty of Science at Charles University, under the guidance of Professor Josef Velenovský. In 1930, he joined the Nationa ...

(1903-1974). He fell sick with malaria afterwards. He received a doctorate in 1928 with a thesis on the spiders of Bohemia. Shortly after that he travelled to Malaysia and learned the Malay language. He wrote books for children and several travelogues. He took an interest in languages and learned Arabic, Swahili and Malay. In 1930 he translated a Malay fairy tale in "Pa Belalang". In 1931 he drove across Africa with the sculptor František V. Foit in a Tatra campervan. He took pictures documenting the travel. On his travels across Australia, Baum teamed with

Walter Drowley Filmer Walter Drowley Filmer (1 September 1865 – 24 August 1944) was an early pioneer of X-rays in Australia, a wireless engineer, for a time ran the British Royal Train, and a world class entomologist that discovered several new species in his homela ...

due to his local expertise with spiders. One species of New-Guinean troglobitic cockroach ''Nocticola baumi'' was named in 2021 on honour of Jiří Baum. His last trip was to South Africa in 1938 and on his return he was involved in resistance against the Nazi invasion. He was arrested on June 10, 1943 and was transported to Terezín and later Auschwitz. He died in Warsaw from sepsis. A large collection of his photographs are now in the Archives of the National Museum in Prague.

References

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Photo of Jiri Baum

Jiří Baum / Anna Baumová
1900 births 1944 deaths 20th-century Czech people Czechoslovak zoologists 20th-century explorers Czech explorers Czech male writers Czech resistance members Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany Scientists from Prague {{CzechRepublic-hist-stub