Johan Wilhelm Palmstruch (3 March 1770 – 30 August 1811) was a Swedish

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

, artist, copperplate engraver, 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 ...

. He contributed to the illustrated botanical work ''Svensk Botanik'' and the plant genus '' Palmstruckia'' is named in his honour.

Life and work

Palmstruch was born in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

and died at

Vänersborg Vänersborg () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Vänersborg Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 23,882 inhabitants (out of a municipal total of 39,904) Until 1997 it was the capital of Älvsborg County, which mer ...

Älvsborg County Älvsborg County () was a county of Sweden until 1997, when it was merged with the counties of Gothenburg & Bohus and Skaraborg to form Västra Götaland County. The county corresponded to the traditional province of Dalsland and the central ...

, Sweden. His father Urban Reinhold was a major and he too joined the military service in 1786. He saw action in 1788-90 and in 1791 he went to Morocco under Colonel Rosenstein. He became a cavalry captain in 1793 and from 1797 he served as an instructor at the Fribyggarordens Lyceum, working on agriculture. He was compared to English naturalist,

James Sowerby James Sowerby (21 March 1757 – 25 October 1822) was an English natural history, naturalist, illustrator and mineralogist. Contributions to published works, such as ''A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland'' or ''English Botany'', include his ...

(1757–1822). In 1802 Carl Venus and Palmstruch were put in charge of publishing a book on the medical and economically important plants with about 500 species illustrated with copperplate engravings. The text was to be written by Conrad Quensel, Olof Swartz and others. It was supported by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He contributed in the publication of two vast volumes of work of

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 ...

; ''Svensk Botanik'' which was first published in 1802 and ''Svensk Zoologi'' first published in 1806. The work was reused to produce lithographs which were hand colored for the ''Bilder ur Nordens flora'' (1901-05) by Carl Lindman.

References

External links

BDH
''Svensk Botanik'' from the Biodiversity Heritage Library
''Svensk Zoologi''
from the Biodiversity Heritage Library Swedish naturalists 1770 births 1811 deaths People from Stockholm {{Sweden-botanist-stub

Life and work

See also

References

External links