Bruno Geisler (5 October 1857, Mittelwalde, Kr. Glatz, Silesia – 7 October 1945

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

ornithologist and bird illustrator.

Career

In 1887, Bruno Geisler began collecting birds in

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and

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 mo ...

with his brother Herbert. In 1890, they moved on to the then German colony

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 ...

. Their bird specimens and some ethnographic material were mainly sold to the then zoological-ethnological-anthropological museum in Dresden (now

Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde Dresden The State Museum of Zoology (german: Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde) in Dresden is a natural history museum that houses 10,000–50,000 specimens, including skeletons and large insect collections. Many are types. The collection suffered war d ...

and Museum of Ethnology Dresden) and to the dealer

Wilhelm Schlüter Wilhelm Schlüter (1828– 25 April 1919) was a German natural history dealer. Wilhelm Schlüter was the proprietor of ''das Naturwissenschaftliche Institut - Naturalien und Lehrmittelhandlung'' in Halle an der Saale. He sold many important bi ...

in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt. In 1893, Bruno Geisler became a curator and taxidermist in the Dresden museum. The bird skins collected by Bruno and Herbert were studied by

Adolf Bernard Meyer Adolf Bernhard Meyer (11 October 1840, Hamburg – 22 August 1911, Dresden) was a German anthropologist, ornithologist, entomologist, and herpetologist. He served for nearly thirty years as director of the Königlich Zoologisches und Anthropologi ...

then a professor at the Dresden museum. Bruno was also a bird illustrator. He became also well known for the bird plates in ''The birds of Celebes and the neighbouring islands'' by Adolf Meyer and

Lionel William Wiglesworth Lionel William Wiglesworth (February 13, 1865 – June 7, 1901) was an ornithologist who studied birds of Southeast Asia and Polynesia. Wiglesworth published ''The Birds of Celebes and the Neighboring Islands'' in 1898 with Adolf Bernhard Meyer Ad ...

published in Berlin by R. Friedländer in 1898,

Anton Reichenow Anton Reichenow (1 August 1847 in Charlottenburg – 6 July 1941 in Hamburg) was a German ornithologist and herpetologist. Reichenow was the son-in-law of Jean Cabanis, and worked at the Natural History Museum of Berlin from 1874 to 1921. He ...

’s ''Die Vögel Afrikas'' Vols 1-3 published by J. Neuman in Neudamm between 1897 and 1905 and in the new '' Naumann's, Naturgeschichte der Vögel Mitteleuropas'' published in 1900–1905.

Recognition

Frogs ''

Oreophryne geislerorum ''Oreophryne geislerorum'' (also known as the Madang cross frog) is a species of frog in the family Microhylidae. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea where it is known from the northern coast between the tip of the Huon Peninsula and south and ...

'' and ''

Dendropsophus giesleri ''Dendropsophus giesleri'' is a species of frog in the family Hylidae. It is endemic to Brazil. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, freshwater marshes, and ...

'' are named after him, the first together with his brother, Herbert Geisler. Also specific names of three birds honour him.

References

*Gebhart L., 1964 ''Die Ornithologen Mitteleuropas''. Giessen, p. 108. *Heyder, R., 1965 Der Vogelmaler Bruno Geisler. ''Abh. Dresden'' 28: 143–155. (Photo). Lists all illustrations. *Jackson, C.E., 1999 ''Dictionary of Bird Artists of the World''. 252 f. *Jakobi A., 1925 ''50 Jahre Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden''. *Wichmann A., 1912 ''Nova Guinea'' 2. — Teil 2, Leiden. 517–518, 557-558

External links

BDHL
''The birds of Celebes and the neighbouring islands'' German ornithologists 1945 deaths 1857 births People from the German colonial empire {{ornithologist-stub