Amalie Dietrich

Koncordie Amalie Dietrich (née Nelle) (26 May 1821 – 9 March 1891) was a German naturalist who was best known for her work in Australia from 1863 to 1872, collecting specimens for the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg.

Australia

Dietrich was one of a number of influential German-speaking residents such as William Blandowski, Ludwig Becker, Hermann Beckler, Diedrich Henne, Gerard Krefft, Johann Luehmann, Johann Menge, Ludwig Preiss, Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker (a.k.a. Ruemker), Moritz Richard Schomburgk, Richard Wolfgang Semon, George Ulrich, Eugene von Guérard, Robert von Lendenfeld, Ferdinand von Mueller, Georg von Neumayer, and Carl Wilhelmi who brought their "epistemic traditions" to Australia, and not only became "deeply entangled with the Australian colonial project", but also "intricately involved in imagining, knowing and shaping colonial Australia" (Barrett, et al., 2018, p.2).

Controversy

Whilst in Queensland, Australia, Dietrich "actively sought fresh Aboriginal skeletons for her European clients”. While this is most likely part of a local legend that presents Dietrich as the 'Angel of Black Death, it is accepted that she did send the human remains of several Indigenous Australians to Hamburg. Her contribution to colonialism – pertaining to both the anthropological as well as the botanical aspect – are the subject of recent academic debates.

Career

Amalie Dietrich was born in Siebenlehn, Saxony, German Confederation. In 1846, she married Wilhelm August Salomo Dietrich, a doctor. With no formal training she learnt all she could from him about collecting and they planned careers working as naturalists. Between 1845 and 1862 they made a precarious living collecting Alpine specimens to sell to chemists for medicines and to museums for their natural history collections. Some of the delicate alpine flowers she collected in this period can be seen on display in the Natural History Museum in Freiburg.

Dietrich spent the years from 1863 - 1872 in Queensland, Australia where she collected a wide range of species as well as artefacts created by Indigenous Australians. She is thought to be the first European to find and collect a Taipan snake while she was there.

Species

She collected the type specimens of many species, and in a number of cases the author of the description honoured her in the species epithet (''dietrichiae'', ''dietrichiana'', ''amaliae'', etc.). Species whose type specimens she collected include:

''Aongstroemia dietrichiae'' Müll.Hal. (1868) - '' Dicranella dietrichiae'' ( Müll.Hal.) A.Jaeger
''Laxmannia illicebrosa'' Rchb.f. (1871) - a synonym of '' Laxmannia gracilis R.Br.
Marsdenia hemiptera'' Rchb. (1871)
'' Fissidens dietrichiae'' Müll.Hal. (1872)
''Macromitrium sordidevirens'' Müll.Hal. (1872) - '' Macromitrium aurescens'' Hampe
''Sargassum aciculare'' Grunow (1874) - ''Sargassum filifolium'' var. ''aciculare'' (Grunow) Grunow
'' Sargassum amaliae'' Grunow (1874) - accepted
'' Sargassum godeffroyi'' Grunow (1874) - accepted
''Schoenus elatus'' Boeck. (1875) - '' Schoenus falcatus'' R.Br.
''Scirpus dietrichiae'' Boeck. (1875) - '' Lipocarpha microcephala'' (R.Br.) Kunth
''Scleria dietrichiae'' Boeck. (1875) - ''Scleria levis'' Retz.
''Scleria novae-hollandiae'' Boeck. (1875) - '' Scleria laxa'' R.Br.
''Carex dietrichiae'' Boeck. (1875) - '' Carex indica'' L.

''Cyperus luerssenii'' Boeck. (1875) - '' Cyperus subulatus'' R.Br.

'' Acacia dietrichiana'' F.Muell. (1882)

''Barbula subcalycina'' Mull.Hal. (1882) - (not listed in IPNI, APNI, nor Plants of the world online; listed in AusMoss)

''Frullania dietrichana'' Steph. (1910) - ''Frullania seriata'' Gottsche ex Steph.

''Indigofera amaliae'' Domin (1915) - '' Indigofera polygaloides'' M.B.Scott

''Acacia penninervis'' var. ''longiracemosa'' Domin (1926)

''Cryptocarya multicostata'' Domin (1926) - ''Cryptocarya hypospodia'' F.Muell.

''Cryptocarya triplinervis'' var. ''euryphylla'' Domin (1926) - Cryptocarya triplinervis R.Br.

''Psoralea dietrichiae'' Domin (1926) - ''Cullen australasicum'' (Schltdl.) J.W.Grimes

''Swainsona luteola'' var. ''dietrichiae'' Domin (1926) - '' Swainsona luteola'' F.Muell.

''Tetrastigma nitens'' var. ''amaliae'' Domin (1927) - '' Tetrastigma nitens'' (F.Muell.) Planch.

''Plectronia coprosmoides'' var. ''spathulata'' O.Swartz (1927) - ''Cyclophyllum coprosmoides'' var. ''spathulatum'' ( O.Schwarz) S.T.Reynolds & R.J.F.Hend.

''Premna benthamiana'' Domin (1928) - ''Premna serratifolia'' L.

''Hibiscus amaliae'' Domin (1930) - '' Hibiscus heterophyllus'' Vent. (1805)

''Mallotus claoxyloides'' f. ''grossedentata'' Domin (1930) - '' Mallotus ficifolius (Baill.) Pax & K.Hoffm.

''Mallotus claoxyloides'' var. ''glabratus'' Domin (1930) - '' Mallotus claoxyloides'' (F.Muell.) Müll.Arg.

''Pagetia dietrichiae'' Domin (1930) - ''Bosistoa medicinalis'' (F.Muell.) T.G.Hartley

'' Persoonia amaliae'' Domin (1930)

''Cyperus pumilus'' var. ''nervulosus'' Kuk. (1936) - '' Cyperus nervulosus'' ( Kük.) S.T.Blake

''Helichrysum eriocephalum'' J.H.Willis (1952)

'' Nortonia amaliae'' (a wasp)

'' Drosera dietrichiana'' Rchb.f. (1871) - a synonym of '' Drosera burmanni'' Vahl (1794)
Dietrich, Konkordia Amalie (nee Nelle), Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, https://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/dietrich-amalie.html

Current names, synonymy etc based on searches of the Australian Plant Name Index and Plants of the World online. Where no alternative name is given above, the species name is that accepted by either or both of these sources with the exception of the seaweeds.)

Collections

Her collections formed the basis of ''Zur Flora von Queensland'' ("On Queensland's Flora", 1875) by Christian Luerssen. While in Australia, she visited Ferdinand von Mueller, and in 1881 Mueller acquired a set of her specimens from Luerssen. (The National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL) holds 2790 of her specimens.) She published nothing in her name. However, her collections continue to be an important resource in herbaria around the world (MEL, B, BM, BRSL, HBG, JE, K, L , MO, P, US, W).

Dietrich Place

Dietrich Place in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in recognition of her work in Australia.

See also

*Timeline of women in science

Notes

References

* Barrett, L., Eckstein, L., Hurley, A.W. & Schwarz A. (2018), "Remembering German-Australian Colonial Entanglement: An Introduction", ''Postcolonial Studies'', Vol.21, No.1, (January 2018), pp.1-5.

External links

* Stefanie Affeldt, Wulf D. Hund: ''From ‘Plant Hunter’ to ‘Tomb Raider’. The Changing Image of Amalie Dietrich''. In: Australian Studies Journal , Zeitschrift für Australienstudien, 33-34, 2019-2020, pp. 89–124
open-access

*Australian Science Archives Project. 1998

*

'
*
Queensland Photographs at Pitt-Rivers Museum The Hard Road, Charitas Bischoff
Martin Hopkinson Ltd, London, 1931
*Dietrich, Lodewyckx, & Lodewyckx, A. (1943). Australische Briefe / von Amalie Dietrich ; with a biographical sketch, exercises and a vocabulary, edited by Augustin Lodewyckx. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press in association with Oxford University Press.
*Bischoff, C. (1914)
Amalie Dietrich, ein Leben
von Charitas Bischoff. (Grote'sche Sammlung von Werken zeitgenössischer Schriftsteller; Bd. 97). Berlin: Grote.
*Lüttge, U., & Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. (1988)
Amalie Dietrich (1821-1891) German biologist in Australia
homage to Australia's Bicentenary, 1988 / edited by Ulrich Lüttge. (Studies in international cultural relations ; v. 29). Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
*Sumner, R. (1993)
A woman in the wilderness, The story of Amalie Dietrich in Australia
Ray Sumner. Kensington, NSW, Australia: New South Wales University Press.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dietrich, Amalie
German naturalists
German entomologists
1821 births
1891 deaths
German women scientists
Women botanists
Women entomologists
Women naturalists
Botanists active in Australia
19th-century German botanists
19th-century German zoologists
19th-century women scientists
19th-century Australian women