Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz (18 September 1871 – 2 September 1944) was a Dutch explorer in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

and diplomat in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. He was born to Theodorus Apolonius Ninus Lorentz, a tobacco grower in East

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

who had returned to the Netherlands and Marie Soet in 1871. Lorentz studied law and biology at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

and married Marie Louise Clemence

baroness Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

Van Zuylen van Nievelt Van Zuylen van Nievelt is an old noble Dutch family originating from Utrecht. History Utrecht The family was already noble from earliest times ("Uradel"). The first known ancestor is the knight Steven van Zulen, who early in the 13th century ...

. Lorentz participated in three expeditions to

Dutch New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea ( nl, Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea, id, Nugini Belanda) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingd ...

, the present-day

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n (western) portion of the island of New Guinea. The first was the North New Guinea Expedition in 1903, led by Arthur Wichmann. Lorentz himself led expeditions in 1907 and 1909–1910.

Places and species named after Lorentz

* Lorentz National Park and the

Lorentz River The Lorentz River (also Unir or Undir in Indonesian, or Noordrivier in Dutch) is located in the Indonesian province of South Papua in Western New Guinea, about 3,500 km northeast of the Indonesian capital Jakarta.Lorentz catfish and Lorentz's mosaic-tailed rat * The non-venomous Lorentz's tree snake '' Dendrelaphis lorentzii'' ( Van Lidth de Jeude, 1911). The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

was collected at Sabang on the Noordrivier (later renamed the Lorentz River) during Lorentz's third Papuan expedition.

Collector

Lorentz collected indigenous artifacts and bird samples. The latter he sent to the

Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (National Museum of Natural History) was a museum on the Rapenburg in Leiden, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1820 by Royal Decree from a merger of several existing collections. This happened on the initi ...

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

, The Netherlands. Some examples: Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.143263 1 - Sericulus aureus ardens (D'Albertis & Salvadori, 1879) - Ptilonorhynchidae - bird skin specimen.jpeg, Flame bowerbird (''Sericulus ardens'') from Southern New Guinea in 1907. Original description ''Xanthomelus ardens'', later subspecies ''Sericulus aureus ardens''. Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.143263 2 - Sericulus aureus ardens (D'Albertis & Salvadori, 1879) - Ptilonorhynchidae - bird skin specimen.jpeg, Breast view of the same sample. Flame bowerbird (''Sericulus ardens''). File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.130350 1 - Pachycephala aurea Reichenow , 1899 - Pachycephalidae - bird skin specimen.jpeg, Golden-backed whistler (''Pachycephala aurea''), New Guinea expedition 1909 Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.130604 1 - Pitohui dichrous (Bonaparte, 1850) - Pachycephalidae - bird skin specimen.jpeg, Hooded pitohui (''Pitohui dichrous''), received 1909 File:Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.134398 1 - Pycnopygius stictocephalus (Salvadori, 1876) - Meliphagidae - bird skin specimen.jpeg, Streak-headed honeyeater (''Pycnopygius stictocephalus''), New Guinea expedition 1909 Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.135441 2 - Rhipidura maculipectus Gray, 1858 - Monarchidae - bird skin specimen.jpeg,

Black thicket fantail The black thicket fantail (''Rhipidura maculipectus'') is a species of bird in the family Rhipiduridae. It is found in the Aru Islands and New Guinea. This species is one of 47 in the genus ''Rhipidura''. Description This is a medium-sized, l ...

(''Rhipidura maculipectus''), New Guinea expedition 1909 Naturalis Biodiversity Center - RMNH.AVES.135833 2 - Myiagra ruficollis ruficollis (Vieillot, 1818) - Monarchidae - bird skin specimen.jpeg, Broad-billed flycatcher (''Myiagra ruficollis ruficollis''), from

Kupang Kupang ( id, Kota Kupang, ), formerly known as Koepang, is the capital of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. At the 2020 C ensus, it had a population of 442,758; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 455,850. It is the largest ci ...

, Timor, 1909

External links

* Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz's archives, * Searching for "lorentz" in an online museum collection,

Publications

by Lorentz

* (in Dutch) ''Eenige maanden onder de Papoea's''. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1905. * (in Dutch) '' Zwarte menschen - witte bergen: verhaal van den tocht naar het sneeuwgebergte van Nieuw-Guinea''. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1913. (Tweede druk 2005, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Atlas; met een voorwoord van

Tijs Goldschmidt Paul-Tijs (Tijs) Goldschmidt (born 30 January 1953 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch writer and evolutionary biologist. Since 1 March 2012, Goldschmidt is writer in residence of the Artis Bibliotheek, which is part of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). G ...

en een inleiding van A.S. Troelstra. ).

by other authors

* Ballard, Chris, Steven Vink and Anton Ploeg, ''Race to the Snow; Photography and the Exploration of Dutch New Guinea, 1907-1936''. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2001. * (in Dutch) Duuren, David van en Steven Vink, 'Hendrikus Albertus Lorentz (1871-1944)', in: David van Duuren, ''Oceania at the Tropenmuseum''. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2011, p. 66. * (in Dutch) Schepers, J.H.G., In Memoriam mr. H.A. Lorentz. ''Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Aardrijkskundig Genootschap'' 63, 1946, pp. 1-7. * (in Dutch) Troelstra, Anne, Lorentz in Noord-Nieuw-Guinea, hfdst. 7 in Anne Troelstra (ed), ''Van Spitsbergen naar Suriname''. Amsterdam/Antwerpen: Atlas, pp. 279-302. 1871 births 1944 deaths 19th-century Dutch explorers 20th-century Dutch explorers 20th-century Dutch diplomats Explorers of New Guinea People from Oudewater Netherlands New Guinea people {{netherlands-bio-stub