Theodor Kleinschmidt (6 March 1834 in Wolfhagen – 10 April 1881 in Utuaia,

Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...

) was a German

trader Trader may refer to: * Merchant, retailer or one who attempts to generally buy wholesale and sell later at a profit * The owner of a trading post, where manufactured goods were exchanged with native peoples for furs and hides. * Trader (finance), ...

, explorer and naturalist.

Biography

Kleinschmidt studied commerce and went to the United States of America in 1843. He launched out in business in Saint Louis (Missouri) but went bankrupt and had to leave for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

then on to

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

to flee his creditors. But his trade with the natives was not brilliant, in particular because of the economic crisis of 1874. The

Museum Godeffroy The Museum Godeffroy was a museum in Hamburg, Germany, which existed from 1861 to 1885. The collection was founded by Johann Cesar VI. Godeffroy, who became a wealthy shipping magnate a few years after the expansion of the trade towards Aust ...

of Hamburg then offered a new opportunity to him. The institution charged him with collecting natural history specimens, fauna and flora, in the Solomon Islands and New Hebrides, territories largely unexplored hitherto. He was assassinated by natives in 1881. He was the uncle of the priest and ornithologist Otto Kleinschmidt (1870–1954).

Eponym

The

pink-billed parrotfinch The pink-billed parrotfinch (''Erythrura kleinschmidti'') is a species of estrildid finch found on the island of Viti Levu, Fiji. Commonly found at undisturbed mature forest in the centre and east of Viti Levu, e.g. Joske's Thumb near Suva. This ...

(''Erythrura kleinschmidti'') was named in his honour by Otto Finsch.

References

Literature

* Walther Killy (Hersg.): ''Enzyklopädie der Biographien''. Saur Verlag, München, 2000 1834 births 1881 deaths People from Wolfhagen German naturalists German emigrants to the United States {{Germany-archaeologist-stub