Carl Linnaeus

• 1. Childhood In Smaland

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  Carl Linnaeus was born on the 23rd of May 1707 in the village of Råshult. His father Nicolaus Ingemarsson taught him Latin as a small child. The family lived in the countryside of Småland, southern Sweden. Nils worked as a Lutheran minister and curate for the small village of Stenbrohult. Christina Brodersonia was his mother and the daughter of Samuel Brodersonius. A year after Carl's birth, his grandfather died and the family moved into the rectory from the curate's house. Young Carl showed an early liking for plants and flowers. Whenever he felt upset, someone gave him a flower which immediately calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden showing flowers to his son. Soon Linnaeus received his own patch of earth where he could grow plants.

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• 2. Expeditions Across Sweden

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  In April 1732 Linnaeus began a journey to Lapland with a grant from the Royal Society of Sciences. He traveled over six hundred miles across the region on foot and horseback. Near Gävle he found great quantities of Campanula serpyllifolia later known as Linnaea borealis. This twinflower became his favorite plant and personal emblem. He returned from the expedition in October having gathered many plants birds and rocks. During this trip he observed the lower jawbone of a horse at the side of a road. He remarked that if he knew how many teeth every animal had he might work out a natural system for quadrupeds. The account covered 534 species and became the basis of his book Flora Lapponica published in 1737. In 1746 he led another expedition to Västergötland with Erik Gustaf Lidbeck. They set out from Uppsala on the 12th of June and returned on the 11th of August. His findings were published the next year in Wästgöta-Resa.

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• 3. Years In The Dutch Republic

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  Linnaeus left Sweden in April 1735 to study medicine at the University of Harderwijk. He intended to tutor Claes Sohlberg in exchange for an annual salary. On the way they stopped in Hamburg where the mayor showed them a seven-headed hydra specimen. Linnaeus discovered it was fake cobbled together from weasel jaws and snake skins. He made his observations public dashing the mayor's dreams of selling the creature. The pair fled from Hamburg shortly after. He completed his doctoral degree within two weeks submitting a dissertation written back in Sweden. That summer he reunited with Peter Artedi who drowned ten weeks later leaving behind an unfinished manuscript on fish classification. In August 1735 he met George Clifford III director of the Dutch East India Company. Clifford invited him to become his physician and superintendent of his garden at Hartekamp. Linnaeus stayed there until October 1738 receiving one thousand florins a year plus free board and lodging. It was here that he wrote Hortus Cliffortianus describing the experience as the happiest time of his life.

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• 4. Development Of Taxonomy

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  The first edition of Systema Naturae appeared in the Netherlands in 1735 as a twelve-page work. By its tenth edition released in 1758 it classified 4,400 species of animals and 7,700 species of plants. Linnaeus developed a system dividing nature into three kingdoms: animal mineral and vegetable. Kingdoms were divided into classes then orders genera and finally species. This hierarchical structure became known as the Linnaean taxonomy. Species Plantarum published in 1753 served as the starting point for modern botanical nomenclature. The book contained 1,200 pages and described over 7,300 species. Philosophia Botanica published in 1751 summarized his thinking on plant classification. He also popularized using Mars and Venus symbols to denote sex within species. These became standard gender symbols used today. His groupings relied upon shared physical characteristics rather than differences. Modern taxonomy includes ranks like family and phylum not present in his original system.

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• 5. Human Classification Controversy

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  Linnaeus was the first to include humans taxonomically grouped with apes under Anthropomorpha. In the first edition of Systema Naturae he subdivided the human species into four varieties. These included Europæus albescens Americanus rubescens Asiaticus fuscus and Africanus nigr[iculus]. Later editions changed descriptions from whitish reddish tawny blackish to white red pale yellow and black. He added a second species Homo troglodytes based on a figure by Jacobus Bontius from 1658. A third species Homo lar appeared in 1771 but has since been reclassified as Hylobates lar. The Linnean Society acknowledges that his categorization's focus on skin color provided foundations for scientific racism. Many natural historians believed he had demoted humans from their former place of ruling over nature. Theological concerns arose because putting man at the same level as monkeys would lower his spiritually higher position. Critics argued it was illogical to describe man as human-like when looking at them from a point of view of morality.

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• 6. The Apostles Network

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  Linnaeus taught many devoted students whom he called apostles. Seventeen of these made botanical expeditions to various places around the world. Christopher Tärnström was the first apostle making his journey in 1746. He died of a tropical fever on Côn Sơn Island the same year. Six other apostles later died on their expeditions including Pehr Forsskål and Pehr Löfling. Finnish-born Pehr Kalm set out two years after Tärnström to North America. He spent two-and-a-half years studying flora and fauna of Pennsylvania New York and Canada. Daniel Solander joined James Cook on his expedition to Oceania aboard the Endeavour in 1768. Carl Peter Thunberg embarked on a nine-year expedition in 1770 staying in South Africa for three years before traveling to Japan. All foreigners were barred from entering Japan so Thunberg studied plants in gardens of Dejima outside Nagasaki. Thanks to these students the Linnaean system spread through the world without Linnaeus ever having to travel outside Sweden again.

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