Johann Wilhelm Helfer also known as Jan Vilém Helfer (February 5, 1810 in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...
– January 30, 1840 in
Andaman Islands) was a
Bohemian
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
,
explorer
Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians.
Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
and
naturalist. He died in the Andaman Islands, after the group he was in was attacked by natives with arrows. Many of the plants he collected went to Kew and nearly 140 species were named after him.
Life
![Pauline Nostitz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Pauline_Nostitz.jpg)
Helfer came from a wealthy Prague family. He first attended the Prague grammar school and then began studying medicine. He studied at the universities of Prague, Vienna, Padua and Trieste. In 1832 he was appointed Dr. Ing. med. doctorate. On a subsequent trip to Italy he met and married Mathilde Pauline Baroness des Granges (c. 1801– 9 July 1881). The couple decided to travel from Trieste through the Middle East towards India. Their first natural history collections were made near
Smyrna
Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...
where Helfer practised medicine. They continued to
Aleppo. In Aleppo, Helfer was invited to join Colonel
Francis Rawdon Chesney
Francis Rawdon Chesney (16 March 1789 – 30 January 1872) was a British general and explorer.
Life
He was a son of Captain Alexander Chesney, an Irishman of Scottish descent who, having emigrated to South Carolina in 1772, served under Lo ...
's Euphrates expedition as the expedition's naturalist. The expedition began the journey down the
Euphrates
The Euphrates () is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of Western Asia. Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia ( ''the land between the rivers''). Originating in Turkey, the Eup ...
on 22 March 1836. The Euphrates expedition continued, but the Helfers left it at
Balis in May, after sending two crates of specimens to the British Museum (lost at sea). Parting from Chesney the Helfers traveled from Syria to the Persian Gulf to begin the six-week voyage to Calcutta. They stopped in Baghdad and
Bushehr
Bushehr, Booshehr or Bushire ( fa, بوشهر ; also romanised as ''Būshehr'', ''Bouchehr'', ''Buschir'' and ''Busehr''), also known as Bandar Bushehr ( fa, ; also romanised as ''Bandar Būshehr'' and ''Bandar-e Būshehr''), previously Antio ...
, and then in Muscat (Oman), arriving in Calcutta on 20 August 1836 where they stayed with acquaintances of Chesney and later at the Chowringhee Boarding House. Helfer collected plants and lectured on natural history to the
Asiatic Society of Bengal.
John Clark Marshman
John Clark Marshman (18 August 1794 – 8 July 1877) was an English journalist and historian. He was editor and publisher of the Calcutta-based ''Friend of India'', and was involved with several other Indian publications.
Early life
Marshman wa ...
(1794–1877), editor of the weekly newspaper ''Friend of India'' encouraged the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
which had founded
the botanic garden in Calcutta in 1787 to employ Helfer as a naturalist. During this time, he kept in contact with the German geographer
Carl Ritter
Carl Ritter (August 7, 1779September 28, 1859) was a German geographer. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, he is considered one of the founders of modern geography. From 1825 until his death, he occupied the first chair in geography at the Univer ...
, who used the information provided by helpers for his volumes 10 and 11 of his geography. Helfer explored the
Tenasserim provinces and the
Mergui Archipelago
The Mergui Archipelago (also Myeik Archipelago or ''Myeik Kyunzu''; my, မြိတ်ကျွန်းစု) is located in far southern Myanmar (Burma) and is part of the Tanintharyi Region. It consists of more than 800 islands, varying in ...
(now in Burma) on behalf of Company. The Helfers left Calcutta on 21 January 1837 aboard the Elizabeth and travelled down the River Hooghly and across the Bay of Bengal to
Moulmein
Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at th ...
. From this base he wrote a series of detailed reports on his observations on mining and forestry. Sometime during 1837, the Helfers started a plantation near
Myeik focusing on palm trees, coffee and nutmegs and in 1837 and 1838 he sailed the shores of India and Burma. On 30 January 1840 Helfer was struck by a native arrow during a last trip to the
Andaman Islands. His body was never recovered. Several myths were propagated subsequently, including the idea that his wife killed the assassin. In actual fact, she was not even present with him on that trip.
Following Helfer's death, his widow gave her husband's collections to the Bohemian Museum (55,249 natural history specimens, representing 47,833 beetles belonging to 1,700 species, 609 bird skins, 14 mammal skins, 508 Lepidoptera and 6,086 herbarium specimens or collections, representing at least 574 species). In 1844, Pauline Helfer married Count Joseph Dittmar von Nostitz-Rokitnitz (1794–1871). In 1873 and 1877, she published two volumes recounting their travels and adventures in the Middle East and Indo-Burma.
Works
*Helfer, J. W., 183
Report of the coal discovered in the Tenasserim provinces ''
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
The Asiatic Society is a government of India organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research", in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions. It was founded by the p ...
'' 7: 701–706.
*Helfer, J. W., 183
Note on the animal productions of the Tenasserim provinces ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' 7: 855–862.
*Helfer, J. W., 1839 Amherst town, in the Tenasserim provinces. The provinces of Ye, Tavoy and Mergue on the Tenasserim coast; visited and examined by order of government, with the view to develop their natural resources, Second report. Calcutta.
*Helfer, J. W., 1840 Third report on Tenasserim – the surrounding nations. Inhabitants, natives and foreigners – character, morals and religion. Calcutta.
*Helfer, J. W., 1840 Fourth report on the Tenasserim provinces, considered as a resort for Europeans. Calcutta.
*Helfer, J. W., 1859 Johann Wilhelm Helfer's gedruckte und ungedruckte Schriften über die Tenasserim Provinzen, den Mergui Archipel und die Andamanen-Inseln. Mittheilungen der kaiserlich-königlichen geographischen Gesellschaft 3.
Collections
Zoology
His private collection from 1830 and his Euphrates expedition insect collections, and specimens from
Asia minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
and the
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...
and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
(1836) and the
Mergui Archipelago
The Mergui Archipelago (also Myeik Archipelago or ''Myeik Kyunzu''; my, မြိတ်ကျွန်းစု) is located in far southern Myanmar (Burma) and is part of the Tanintharyi Region. It consists of more than 800 islands, varying in ...
(1837/39) and from the Andamans (1840) are in the
National Museum in Prague. The Buprestidae, Lucanidae, Cetoniidae and Cerambycidae are "lost" in the collections of
Victor Motschulsky
Victor Ivanovich Motschulsky (sometimes Victor von Motschulsky, russian: link=no, Виктор Иванович Мочульский, 11 April 1810, in St. Petersburg – 5 June 1871, in Simferopol) was a Russian entomologist mainly interested i ...
.
Botany
Kew Herbarium,
Botanische Staatssammlung München,
Central National Herbarium, Kolkat
Websiteh1>
Notes
References
*A. Wolcott, K & Renner, Susanne. (2017). Jan Vilém Helfer's (1810–1840) collections from India, the Andaman Archipelago and Burma. ''Archives of Natural History''. 44. 292-302.
*Kunský, J. 1961 ''Čeští cestovatelé''. I, II, III Praha, Orbis, pp. 326 - 343
*Nostitz, P. 1873 ''Johann Wilhelm Helfer's Reisen in Vorder-Asien und Indien.'' 2 Teile Leipzig, F. A. Brockhaus, 561 S. S
Scanned copy of second part*Nostitz, P. 1878
Travels of Doctor and Madame Helfer in Syria, Mesopotamia, Burmah and other lands, Volume 1
*Nostitz, P. 1878:
Travels of Doctor and Madame Helfer in Syria, Mesopotamia, Burmah and other lands, Volume 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Helfer, Johann Wilhelm
Czech entomologists
Czech botanists
19th-century German botanists
German lepidopterists
Coleopterists
1810 births
1840 deaths
Scientists from Prague