View source for Nathaniel Wallich

{{Short description|Danish surgeon and botanist (1786–1854)}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Redirect|Wall.|the US Supreme Court reporter|John William Wallace|other uses|Wall (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Nathaniel Wulff Wallich
| image             = NathanielWallich.jpg
| image_size        = 
| alt               = Portrait of Wallich
| caption           = Wallich, from an old lithograph by T. H. Maguire
| birth_name        = Nathan ben Wulff
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=yes|1786|1|28}}
| birth_place       = [[Copenhagen]], Denmark
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=yes|1854|4|28|1786|1|28}}
| death_place       = London, England
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = 
| fields            = {{Unbulleted list | Surgeon | [[Botanist]]}}
| workplaces        = {{Unbulleted list | [[Royal Danish Academy of Surgery|Royal Academy of Surgeons]] | [[East India Company]] | [[Asiatic Society|Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society]]}}
| alma_mater        = [[Royal Danish Academy of Surgery|Royal Academy of Surgeons]]
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| academic_advisors = 
| doctoral_students = 
| notable_students  = 
| known_for         = {{Unbulleted list | ''[[Tentamen Florae Nepalensis Illustratae]]'' | ''[[Plantae Asiaticae Rariores]]''}}
| author_abbrev_bot = '''<span class="vcard"><span class="fn n"><span class="nickname">Wall.</span></span></span>'''<ref>{{cite book|last = Brummitt|first = R. K.|author2=C. E. Powell|title = Authors of Plant Names |publisher = [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]] |year = 1992 |isbn = 1-84246-085-4}}</ref>
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| influences        = 
| influenced        = 
| awards            = 
| signature         = <!--(filename only)-->
| signature_alt     = 
| footnotes         = 
}}
'''Nathaniel Wolff Wallich''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|FRSE}} (28 January 1786 – 28 April 1854) was a surgeon and [[botanist]] of Danish origin who worked in India, initially in the Danish settlement near [[Calcutta]] and later for the [[Danish East India Company]] and the [[British East India Company]]. He was involved in the early development of the [[Calcutta Botanical Garden]], describing many new plant species and developing a large herbarium collection which was distributed to collections in Europe. Several of the plants that he collected were named after him.

==Early life and education==
[[File:Wallich Grant.jpg|thumb|Portrait by [[Colesworthy Grant]]|left]]
Nathaniel Wallich was born in [[Copenhagen]] in 1786 as Nathan Wulff Wallich. His father Wulff Lazarus Wallich (1756–1843) was a [[Sephardi_Jews|Sephardic]] Jewish merchant originally from the [[Holstein|Holsatian]] town [[Altona, Hamburg|Altona]] near [[Hamburg]], who settled in Copenhagen late in the 18th century.<ref name="taylor&janick"/>{{sfnp|Taylor|2009|p=103}}{{sfnp|Kothari|Chhapgar|2009|p=194}} His mother was Hanne née Jacobson (1757–1839).{{citation needed|date=February 2022}}

Wallich attended the [[Royal Danish Academy of Surgery|Royal Academy of Surgeons]]{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|In the old Danish spelling "Chirurgiske Akademie", and "Kirurgiske Akademi".}} in Copenhagen, where his professors trained in the botanical science included [[Erik Viborg]], [[Martin Vahl]], [[Heinrich Christian Friedrich Schumacher]] and [[Jens Wilken Hornemann]].{{sfnp|Indian Museum|1914|p=104}}<ref name="taylor&janick"/> He obtained the diploma from the Academy in 1806, and at the end of the year was appointed as surgeon in the Danish settlement at [[Serampore]], then known as ''Frederiksnagore'' in [[Bengal]].<ref name="taylor&janick"/>{{sfnp|Indian Museum|1914|p=104}}

==Career==
Wallich sailed for [[India]] in April 1807 via the [[Cape of Good Hope|African cape]] and arrived at [[Serampore]] the following November.{{sfnp|Indian Museum|1914|p=104}} However, the Danish alliance with [[Napoleon]]ic France resulted in many Danish colonies being seized by the British, including the outpost at [[Serampore|Frederiksnagore]]. When the [[British East India Company]] took over Frederiksnagore,{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Spelt "Frederichsnagor" in older literature;{{sfnp|Indian Museum|1914|p=104}} "Frederiksnagore" is the modernized spelling.<ref name="hansen"/> "Frederischnagor"<ref name="taylor&janick"/> seems to be a typographical error.}} Wallich was imprisoned,<ref name="taylor&janick"/>{{sfnp|Indian Museum|1914|p=104}} but released on parole in 1809 on the merit of his scholarship.{{sfnp|Kothari|Chhapgar|2009|p=194}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Delfs|first=Tobias|date=2021|title=The German Network around the Danish Botanist and Superintendent of the Botanical Garden in Calcutta, Nathaniel Wallich (1786–1854)|url=https://www.projekt-mida.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Delfs-Tobias-The-German-Network-around-the-Danish-Botanist-and-Superintendent-of-the-Botanical-Garden-in-Calcutta-Nathaniel-Wallich-1786-1854-1.pdf|journal=MIDA Archival Reflexicon|pages=1}}</ref>

===Service in East India Company===

From August 1814, Wallich became an assistant surgeon in the [[East India Company]]'s service and resigned as superintendent of the [[Indian Museum]] in December 1814. 

===First curator of Indian Museum===

Wallich proposed the forming of a museum in a letter dated 2 February 1814 to the Council of the Asiatic Society. Wallich offered his services to the society and some items from his own collections for the museum. The society heartily supported the proposal and resolved to set up a museum and to appoint Wallich to be the honorary curator and then superintendent of the [[Indian Museum|Oriental Museum of the Asiatic Society]]. Dr. Nathaniel Wallich took charge of the museum on 1 June 1814. The museum thus inaugurated, grew rapidly under the guidance of its founder Wallich and private collectors. Most of these private contributors were Europeans except for one Indian, Babu [[Ramkamal Sen]], initially a collector and later the first Indian secretary to the [[Asiatic Society]]. Wallich was not only the enthusiastic founder and the first curator the Indian Museum, he was one of the largest donors to the museum at its inception. Out of one hundred seventy four items donated to the museum till 1816, Wallich donated forty-two botanical specimens.<ref>[http://indianmuseumkolkata.org/wallich.html Official website of Indian Museum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205072834/http://www.indianmuseumkolkata.org/wallich.html |date=5 February 2012 }},''Biography of Nathaniel Wallich''</ref>

=== Royal Botanical Garden, Calcutta ===
[[File:Nathaniel Wallich00.jpg|thumb|upright|''Saurauia nepalensis'' from ''[[Plantae Asiaticae Rariores]]'']]
Wallich was also temporarily appointed superintendent of the [[Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta]], and later permanently joined the garden in 1817, and served there until 1846, when he retired from the service. Ill health forced Wallich to spend the years 1811–1813 in the more temperate climate of [[Mauritius]], whence he continued his studies. In 1822, at the behest of his friend Sir [[Stamford Raffles]] he travelled to Singapore to design the botanical garden, but returned to Calcutta the following year.

Wallich prepared a catalogue of more than 20,000&nbsp;specimens, known informally as the "Wallich Catalogue". The specimens in the catalogue were either collected by Wallich himself or from other collectors around the same period, including Roxburgh, Gomez, Griffith and Wight. The collector of each specimen is clearly cited in the catalogue itself. Today, Wallich's personal collection is housed at the [[Kew Herbarium]] as the Wallich Collection. In addition to the specimens there, Wallich also distributed duplicates of his specimens to herbaria, including some to [[Sir Joseph Banks]], which are in the Kew general collection.<ref>''Numerical List of Dried Specimens of Plants in the Museum of the Honourable East India Company / Which Have Been Supplied by Dr. Wallich, Superintendent of the Botanic Garden at Calcutta''. London, 1828–1849. (see External links below).</ref>

He published two books, ''Tentamen Florae Nepalensis Illustratae'' and ''[[Plantae Asiaticae Rariores]]'', and went on numerous expeditions. One of Wallich's greatest contributions to the field of plant exploration was the assistance he regularly offered to the many plant hunters who stopped in Calcutta on their way to the [[Himalayas]].

The three volumes of ''Plantae Asiaticae Rariores'' made use of artists employed by the Calcutta Botanic Garden: 146 drawings by Gorachand, 109 by Vishnupersaud and one work by Rungiah (the artist employed by [[Robert Wight]]); the rest of the plates were by John Clark and three by [[William Griffith (botanist)|William Griffith]]. Two hundred and fifty copies of the work were printed, of which 40 were purchased by the East India Company.<ref name=Ray>Desmond, Ray 1994. ''The European Discovery of the Indian Flora''. Oxford University Press.</ref>

=== Scholarly distinctions ===
Wallich received an M.D. from Aberdeen in 1819.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/b20457273M002#page/759/mode/1up |author=Comrie, John D. |year=1932| title= History of Scottish Medicine. Volume 2. |publisher=Wellcome Historical Medical Museum|place= London}}</ref> Wallich was later appointed assistant to [[William Roxburgh]], the East India Company's botanist in [[Calcutta]]. By 1813 he had become interested in the flora of India, and undertook expeditions to Nepal, West Hindustan, and lower Burma. During 1837 and 1838, Nathaniel Wallich served as professor of botany at [[Calcutta Medical College]]. Two years later in 1821, he was coferred the degree of honorary doctor at the [[University of Copenhagen]] and in 1826, elected member of the [[Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]].{{sfnp|Sangwan|1998|p=226}} Wallich became a freemason early in his Calcutta life.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Arnold |first=David |date=2008 |title=Plant Capitalism and Company Science: The Indian Career of Nathaniel Wallich |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0026749X0700296X/type/journal_article |journal=Modern Asian Studies |language=en |volume=42 |issue=5 |pages=899–928 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X0700296X |issn=0026-749X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

He was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] in 1822 his proposer being [[John Yule (botanist)|John Yule]]. This was followed in 1828 by his being elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of London]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-902198-84-5|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=20 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Retirement, death, and legacy===

Wallich had suffered deteriorating health for many years, at one time contracting [[cholera]], and he was finally obliged to resign his post in 1846 and retire to London, where he became vice-president of the [[Linnean Society]], of which he had been a fellow since 1818. 

Wallich remained in London until his death seven years later. He died at [[Gower Street, London|Gower Street]] in [[Bloomsbury]] on 28 April 1854 aged 68.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-902198-84-5|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|access-date=20 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> He was buried in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]].

Part of Wallich's herbarium collections held at Kew, and known as the Wallich Herbarium, is the largest separate herbarium. Another part of the collection is the Central National Herbarium of the Botanical Survey of India in Calcutta, making in all about 20,500 specimens.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wallich.rbge.info/|title=The Wallich Catalogue|publisher=Wallich Catalogue Online|access-date=19 October 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://apps.kew.org/herbcat/gotoWallich.do|title=Nathaniel Wallich|publisher= Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew}}</ref> Wallich is also credited with the authorship of 35 papers, mostly botanical.<ref name=Kew>Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. ''About Nathaniel Wallich''. {{cite web |url=http://www.kew.org/learn/library-art-archives/nathaniel-wallich/about-nathaniel-wallich |title=About Nathaniel Wallich &#124; the Wallich Collection at Kew |access-date=2016-08-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017034330/http://www.kew.org/learn/library-art-archives/nathaniel-wallich/about-nathaniel-wallich |archive-date=17 October 2016 |df=dmy-all }}.</ref> 

{{botanist|Wall.|border=0}}

===Family===
Wallich's was the maternal uncle of the Danish zoologist [[Theodore Cantor]].<ref>''Natural History Publications Arising from Theodore Cantor’s Visit to Chusan, China, in 1840'', Archives of natural history 43.1 (2016): 30–40 Edinburgh University Press, I. M. Turner, page 36</ref> Wallich married Juliane Marie Hals (born 1797), later known as Mary Ann, on 30 May 1812, but she died only two months later. In 1815, Wallich married Sophia Collings (1797–1876). Together, they had seven children, two of whom died in infancy. Their eldest son [[George Charles Wallich|George Charles]] became a distinguished oceanographer.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Kew" /> 

<gallery heights="170px" mode="packed-hover" style="margin-top:3em;" caption="Some images of plates from ''Plantae Asiaticae Rariores''">
File:Plantae Asiaticae Rariores - plate 004 - Hibiscus Lindlei.jpg|''[[Hibiscus radiatus]]''
File:Plantae Asiaticae Rariores - plate 001 - Amherstia nobilis.jpg|''[[Amherstia nonilis]]''
File:Plantae Asiaticae Rariores - plate 012 - Melanorrhoea usitata.jpg|''[[Gluta usitata]]''
File:Plantae Asiaticae rariores, or, Descriptions and figures of a select number of unpublished East Indian plants (Tab. 13) BHL449471.jpg|''[[Aspidopterys hirsuta]]''
File:Nathaniel Wallich05.jpg|''[[Curcuma roscoeana]]''
</gallery>

== Species named after Wallich ==
{{Col-begin|width=75%}}
{{Col-break}}

* ''[[Allium wallichii]]'' (jimbur or Himalaya onion)
* ''[[Apostasia wallichii]]''
* ''[[Brahmaea wallichii]]''
* ''[[Bulbophyllum wallichii]]''
* ''[[Burmannia wallichii]]''
* ''[[Castanopsis wallichii]]''
* ''[[Catreus wallichii]]'' (cheer pheasant or Wallich's pheasant)
* ''[[Clerodendrum wallichii]]''
* ''[[Convolvulus wallichianus]]''
* ''[[Debregeasia wallichiana]]''
* ''[[Dioscorea wallichii]]''
* ''[[Diospyros wallichii]]''
* ''[[Dombeya wallichii]]''
* ''[[Dryopteris wallichiana]]''
* ''[[Eriophyton wallichii]]''
* ''[[Euphorbia wallichii]]''
* ''[[Geranium wallichianum]]''
{{Col-break}}
* ''[[Heptapleurum wallichianum]]''
* ''[[Horsfieldia wallichii]]''
* ''[[Hoya wallichii]]''
* ''[[Ilex wallichii]]''
* ''[[Koilodepas wallichianum]]''
* ''[[Ligusticum wallichii]]'' (Szechuan lovage)
* ''[[Lilium wallichianum]]''
* ''[[Meconopsis wallichii]]''
* ''[[Memecylon wallichii]]''
* ''[[Nageia wallichiana]]''
* ''[[Pinus wallichiana]]'' (blue pine or Bhutan pine)
* ''[[Pteris wallichiana]]''
* ''[[Rhododendron wallichii]]''
* ''[[Rotala wallichii]]''
* ''[[Rubus wallichii]]''
* ''[[Salacca wallichiana]]''
* ''[[Sarcococca wallichii]]''
* ''[[Schima wallichii]]''
{{Col-break}}
* ''[[Sorbus wallichii]]''
* ''[[Strobilanthes wallichii]]'' (Kashmir acanthus, hardy Persian shield, wild petunia or kandali)
* ''[[Taxus wallichiana]]'' (Himalayan yew)
* ''[[Ternstroemia wallichiana]]''
* ''[[Tylecodon wallichii]]''
* ''[[Thysia wallichii]]''
* ''[[Ulmus wallichiana]]'' (Himalayan elm or Kashmir elm)
* ''[[Valeriana wallichii]]'' (Indian valerian or Tagar-ganthoda)
* ''[[Wallichia]]'' (a genus of palms)
* ''[[Widdringtonia wallichii]]'' (Clanwilliam cedar or Clanwilliam cypress)
{{col-end}}

==See also==
* ''[[Plantae Asiaticae Rariores]]''
* [[Zoological Survey of India]]

== Film ==
* Morten Skriver (director): ''"[http://www.dfi.dk/faktaomfilm/film/da/35956.aspx?id=35956# Nathanial Wallich & Botanikkens Imperium]"'', [[Zentropa]] Real (2003) {{in lang|da}}

==Explanatory notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
;Citations
{{reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="hansen">{{citation|last=Hansen |first=Alfred |author-link=<!--Alfred Hansen (botaniker) (1925-2008)--> |title=List of Danes honoured in naming of plant genera |journal=Botanisk Tidsskrift |volume=69 |date=1974 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7yIoAQAAIAAJ&q=Wallich |page=215<!--206–216-->}}</ref>

<ref name="taylor&janick">{{cite web|last1=Taylor |first1=Judith M. |author1-link=<!--Judith M. Taylor--> |last2=Janick |first2=Jules |author2-link=<!--Jules Janick--> |title=Lorenzo Da Ponte and Nathaniel Wallich: Jews in the Enlightenment |date=2021|url=https://www.horthistoria.com/articles/articles_articles/articles_articles_lorenzo_da_ponte_nathaniel_wallich/ |website=Horthistoria.com |accessdate=2022-05-07}}</ref>
}}

;Bibliography
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|last1=Kothari |first1=Ashok S. |author1-link=<!--Ashok S. Kothari--> |last2=Chhapgar |first2=Boman F. |author2-link=:en:Boman Framji Chhapgar |title=Living Jewels from the Indian Jungle |publisher=OUP India |date=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mjEgAQAAMAAJ&q=Wallich |isbn=<!--0198064659, -->9780198064657}}

* {{cite book|author=Indian Museum |authorlink=:en:Indian Museum, Kolkata |chapter=Nathaniel Wallich |title=The Indian Museum, 1814-1914 |location=Calcutta |publisher=trustees of the Indian museum and printed at the Baptist mission Press |date=1914 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZZMAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA104 |pages=104–107}}

* {{cite book|last=Sangwan |first=Satpal |author-link=<!--Satpal Sangwan--> |chapter=8 From Gentlemen Amateurs to Professionals: Reassessing the Natural Science Tradition in Colonial India 1780-1840 |title=Nature and the Orient: The Environmental History of South and Southeast Asia: Studies in social ecology and environmental history |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1998 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wsYsAQAAMAAJ&q=Wallich |pages=210–236 |isbn=<!--195638964, -->9780195638967}}

* {{cite book|last=Taylor |first=Judith M. |author-link=<!--Judith M. Taylor--> |title=The Global Migrations of Ornamental Plants: How the World Got Into Your Garden |publisher=Missouri Botanical Garden Press |date=2009 |isbn=9781930723696 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIRFAQAAIAAJ&q=Wallich}}

* {{cite book|last=Krieger |first=Martin |author-link=| title=Nathaniel Wallich: Global Botany in Nineteenth Century India| publisher=Routledge| date=2022 |isbn=9781032377117}}

{{refend}}
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{BHL author}}
* [http://anayglorious.in/science-conservation/collections/nathaniel-wallich/about-nathaniel-wallich.html Kew: About Nathaniel Wallich]
* [http://anayglorious.in/science-conservation/collections/nathaniel-wallich/introducing-the-collection.html Kew: Nathaniel Wallich: About the collection]
* [http://apps.kew.org/herbcat/gotoWallich.do Kew botanical gardens: Nathaniel Wallich]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130921100134/http://indianmuseumkolkata.org/history.php Indian Museum Kolkata: History]
* [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/1917 Wallich Catalog]
* [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k976214 Tentamen Florae Napalensis Illustratae] on [[Gallica]]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallich, Nathaniel}}
[[Category:Botanists with author abbreviations]]
[[Category:1786 births]]
[[Category:1854 deaths]]
[[Category:Botanists active in India]]
[[Category:Pteridologists]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish botanists]]
[[Category:18th-century Danish Jews]]
[[Category:19th-century Danish Jews]]
[[Category:Danish mycologists]]
[[Category:Jewish scientists]]
[[Category:Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Scientists from Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Danish emigrants]]
[[Category:People from British India]]
[[Category:People from Danish India]] 
[[Category:Danish people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:Danish surgeons]]
[[Category:Plant collectors]]