Christian Søren Marcus Olrik (13 October 1815 - 14 December 1870) was a Danish Greenlander professor, zoologist, botanist, and Royal Inspector of

North Greenland The Northern Inspectorate of Greenland (), also known as North Greenland, was a Danish inspectorate on Greenland consisting of the trading centers and missionary stations along the northwest coast of the island. History West Greenland was di ...

Biography

Olrik was born at

Julianehåb Qaqortoq (), also known as Julianehåb, is the capital city of the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland, located near Cape Thorvaldsen. With a population of 3,050 in 2020, it is the most populous town in southern Greenland and the fourt ...

, Greenland. He was the son of Vilhelm Mathias Olrik (1780-1833) and Lea Kirstine Geraae (1794-1828). He became a student at Borgerdydskolen in Copenhagen in 1833. He began his teaching career for the next nine years. He returned to Greenland and was appointed Inspector of the North in 1846 after his brother-in-law, Hans Peter Christian Møller (1810-45) had died in office. During his tenure as inspector he encouraged the self-sufficiency of the Greenlandic economy and was a member of the Greenland Trade Commission. He held on to the position for 20 years before returning again to Copenhagen. He was a popular contact for scientific expeditions to Greenland, as he was a trained and experienced botanist.Biografie
im

Dansk biografisk leksikon ''Dansk Biografisk Leksikon'' (usually abbreviated DBL; title of first edition written ''Dansk biografisk Lexikon'') is a Danish biographical dictionary that has been published in three editions. The first edition, ''Dansk biografisk Lexikon, til ...

Olrik was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1856.

Legacy

Olrik Fjord Olrik Fjord (; ) is a fjord in the Avannaata municipality, Northwestern Greenland. To the east the fjord opens into the Hvalsund, at the end of the Inglefield Gulf of the Baffin Bay.GoogleEarth This fjord was named by Robert Peary after Christ ...

in NW Greenland was named after him. Three animal species are named after Olrik; a

poacher Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the hunti ...

, a

tapeworm Eucestoda, commonly referred to as tapeworms, is the larger of the two subclasses of flatworms in the class Cestoda (the other subclass being Cestodaria). Larvae have six posterior hooks on the scolex (head), in contrast to the ten-hooked Ce ...

, and a

leech Leeches are segmented parasitism, parasitic or Predation, predatory worms that comprise the Class (biology), subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the Oligochaeta, oligochaetes, which include the earthwor ...

.Biographical Etymology of Marine Organism Names. N & O
bei ''tmbl.gu.se''

Personal life

He was married in 1846 to Sophie Møller (1820-1862). He was married in 1863 with Margrethe Elisabeth Møller (1812-1902) sister of his 1st wife.

References

19th-century Danish botanists Inspectors of Greenland 1815 births 1870 deaths 19th-century Danish zoologists History of the Arctic {{Denmark-scientist-stub

Biography

Legacy

Personal life

See also

References