MUELLER, Baron Sir FERDINAND JAKOB HEINRICH von (1825-1896), botanist, was born
on 30 June 1825 in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, only surviving son of Frederick
Mueller, commissioner of customs, and his wife Louise, née Mertens. After his
parents died Mueller was apprenticed to a pharmacist in Husum, Schleswig-Holstein,
becoming an enthusiastic and knowledgable botanist. He attended the University of
Kiel, 1845-47, where he completed his pharmacy qualification and was awarded a
Ph.D. for a thesis surveying the flora of southern Schleswig. Concern about his
sister’s health and perhaps his own persuaded him and his two surviving sisters to
seek a warmer climate. They sailed from Bremen in the Hermann von Beckerath,
arriving in Adelaide on 15 December 1847. Working occasionally as a pharmacist, he
devoted most of his time to investigating the South Australian flora from Mount
Gambier to the Flinders Ranges and Lake Torrens. He contributed papers to the
Linnean Society, London, the German Linnea and newspapers in Adelaide on his
findings. He tried farming in the Bugle Ranges with F. E. H. W. Krichauff but soon
left because it interfered with his botanical work.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography
Victorian government botanist. Von Mueller took an interest in painting, sending his view of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens by Rasmiss to the 1869 Melbourne Public Library Exhibition.
botanist, was born on 30 June 1825 in Rostock, Schleswig-Holstein. He came to Melbourne in 1852 and the following year was appointed Victorian government botanist by Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe. Some of von Mueller's books, such as Flora Australiensis (which appeared in seven volumes between 1863 and 1878), contain numerous unsigned plates which have often been assumed to be after von Mueller's own drawings, but it is now virtually certain that all the illustrations in his ...
Flourished
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Design and Art Australia Online
Ferdinand Jakob H. von Mueller was the first Government Botanist of Victoria and held the post for 43 years from 1853 until his death. From 1853-73 Mueller was Director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens and in 1855-56 was naturalist to the North Australian Exploring Expedition. He was the inaugural president, Royal Society of Victoria, 1860.
Mueller was council member of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science, 1854; council member of the Philosophical Society of Victoria, 1854; first honorary member, Philosophical Institute of Victoria, 1855; president, Philosophical Institute of Victoria, 1859; inaugural president, Royal Society of Victoria, 1860.
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Encyclopedia of Australian Science
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