Person

Blandowski, Wilhelm (1822 - 1878)

Born
21 January 1822
Gliwice (Gleiwitz), Upper Silesia
Died
18 December 1878
Bunzlau, Silesia
Occupation
Zoologist and Naturalist

Summary

Wilhelm Blandowski was Zoologist at the National Museum of Victoria from 1854, and was the first museum staff member appointed by the government. He led numerous expeditions across Victoria and surrounds collecting and illustrating thousands of specimens of Victoria's flora, fauna and geology. Blandowski also helped found the Geological Society of Victoria (1852) and the Philosophical Society of Victoria (1854). After repeated irreconcilable disagreements with Professor Frederick McCoy - palaeontologist to the Geological Survey of Victoria - he left the museum in 1859. Next he left Australia after being threatened with legal action for not returning all his specimens and illustrations and after refusing to remove material from his "Preliminary Report on Recent Discoveries in Natural History on the Lower Murray" as demanded by the Philosophical Society.

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Details

Chronology

1834 - 1836
Career position - Entered the Royal Prussian Cadets at Chelmno (Kulm)
1849
Life event - Arrived in Australia (Melbourne?)
1852
Career position - Co-founder of the Geological Society of Victoria
1854
Career position - Co-founder of the Philosophical Society of Victoria
1854 - 1855
Career position - Collecting expeditions to the coastal areas of Victoria and the region of McIvor (Heathcote) and the Black Ranges
1854 - 1857
Career position - Government Zoologist at the Museum of Natural History
1856 - 1857
Career position - Leader of a government expedition to the region at the junction of the Darling and Murray Rivers for collection of specimens for the National Museum
1857
Career position - Preliminary Report on Recent Discoveries in Natural History on the Lower Murray presented to the Philosophical Society of Victoria
1859
Life event - Left Australia for Germany

Related Corporate Bodies

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

  • Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

  • Augustus Charles Gregory - Records, 1819 - 1905, ML MSS 291; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • Johann Ludwig Gerard Krefft - Records, 1859 - 1881, ML MSS 956; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
  • Wilhelm Blandoski - Records, 1855, PXE 864; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre

  • Colonial Secretary's Office - Records, 1851 - 1863, VPRS 1186; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details
  • Colonial Secretary's Office - Records, 1851 - 1863, VPRS 1189; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre. Details

Published resources

Books

  • Allen, Harry ed., William Blandowski's Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 2010), 188 pp. Details

Book Sections

  • Allen, Harry, 'William Blandowski's Fish: an Ethnohistorical Account Near the Junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers' in Histories of Old Ages: Essays in Honour of Rhys Jones, A. Anderson, I. Lilley and S. O'Connor, eds (Canberra: Coombs Academic Press, Australian National University, 2001), pp. 211-224. Details
  • Paszkowski, L. K., 'Blandowski, William (1822-), Naturalist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Douglas Pike, ed., vol. 3 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969), pp. 182-183. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030174b.htm. Details

Edited Books

  • Wosz, Eva and Hermannstädter, Anita eds, Naturalista, czyli Wilhelm von Blandowski w Australii. Wilhelm von Blandowski: Ein Naturforscher in Australien (Gliwic, Poland: Berlin: Muzeum w Gliwicac: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, 2013), 186 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Allen, Harry and Weldon, Elizabeth A. eds, 'William Blandowski and His Contribution to Nineteenth Century Science and Art in Australia', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 121 (2009), 1-204. Details
  • Darragh, Thomas A., 'The death of William Blandowski', Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, 124 (2012), 234-5. Details
  • Humphries, Paul, 'Blandowski Misses out: Ichthyological Etiquette in 19th-Century Australia', Endeavour, 27 (2003), 160-165. Details
  • Iredale, T., 'Blandowski.', The Victorian naturalist, 49 (1932), 90-96. Details
  • Paszkowski, L., 'William Blandowski: the first Government Zoologist of Victoria', Australian Zoologist, 14 (2) (1967), 147-172. Details
  • Wakefield, N. A., 'Mammals of the Blandowski Expedition to North-Western Victoria, 1856-57', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 79 (pt 2) (1966). Details
  • Whitley, G. P., 'Blandowski', The Victorian naturalist, 49 (1932), 90-96. Details

Resources

Reviews

  • Allen, Harry ed., William Blandowski's Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia (2010)
    Carroll, Khadija, Australian Aboriginal Studies, 2012 (1), (2012), 105-8. Details
  • Allen, Harry ed., William Blandowski's Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia (2010)
    Howes, Hilary, Historical Records of Australian Science, 22 (1), (2011), 174-6, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR11005. Details

See also

  • Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_b.html. Details
  • McMullen, Gabrielle, 'Noted colonial German scientists and their contexts', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, 127 (1) (2015), 9-16, https://doi.org/10.1071/RS15001. Details
  • Moyal, Ann: with Robert E. Marks, 'The scientists and Darwin's The origin of species in nineteenth century Australia: a re-evaluation', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 152 (1) (2019), 5-26. Details
  • Olsen, Penny; and Russell, Lynette, Australia's first naturalists: indigenous peoples' contribution to early zoology (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2019), 223 pp. Details

McCarthy, G.J.

Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 21 August 2013

EOAS ID: biogs/P000237b.htm

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