Amalie
Dietrich: a singular botanical and natural history collector in
nineteenth century Australia.M
A R G I N: life & letters in early Australia -
November 1, 2009
Ann
Moyal
Word
count: 1637.
[ILLUSTRATION
OMITTED]
The
Australian Colonies attracted their fair share of foreign
naturalists and the presence of German botanical collectors and
scientists tended to form a recurring theme in nineteenth century
scientific investigation. Baron von Hugel and Ludwig Preiss had
botanised in the Swan River Colony in the 1830s and early 1840s and
these early flora prospectors carried unique collections back to
Europe. In the 1840's Ludwig Leichhardt, a proficient student of
botany and natural science, collected through a sweep of country
from Sydney to Moreton Bay and on his expedition overland to Port
Essington before he and his party disappeared without a trace on his
third overland journey to look for an inland sea. Some of
Leichhardt's specimens found their way to cabinets in France and
Germany though he himself felt a strong patriotic desire to keep his
collections in his adopted country
Ferdinand
von Mueller's presence as Government Botanist in Victoria was
another reminder of the teutonic presence in Australian botany, a
situation which at times raised hackles and provoked xenophobia. Yet
as New South Wales's pre-eminent geologist, the Rev. W.B. Clarke
wisely observed in 1844, 'If foreign naturalists come amongst us to
carry away the spoils of nature, Englishmen did the same in Germany
and France and Russia, and anyhow the bounds of knowledge are
increased'.
One
of the most unusual German 'intruders' was a woman, Konkordie Amalie
Dietrich (1821-1891) and it fell to the Godeffroy Museum of Natural
History in Hamburg to enjoy the unique distinction of employing a
woman collector to explore, amass, and consign to them botanical and
natural history materials from Eastern Australia. Born at
Siebenlehn, Saxony, the daughter of a leather-maker, and educated at
the village school, Amalie Nelle developed her passionate interest
in botany when in 1847 she met and married Wilhelm Dietrich, a
member of a family long associated with botany and botanical
taxonomy, who made a living by collecting botanical and natural
history objects and selling them to institutions, scholars and
apothecaries. An eager disciple of her husband's craft, Amalie
rapidly became the key member of the collecting team. She travelled
on foot across Germany, Belgium and Holland at first with her
husband, but when amorous diversions lured him to other flowers,
then alone with her daughter, Charitas.
In
1863 she made contact with the Pacific trader, G. J. Godeffroy, who,
while at first reluctant, was persuaded by Amalie's scientific
clients to engage her as a collector in Australia. 'Frau Dietrich',
wrote one botanical expert on her behalf, 'has exceptional talent
for her profession, a well-tried eye for all that Nature presents,
and a great certainty in the classification of collected material.'
She was also a willing work-horse. 'On her long and remarkable
journeys', he added, 'she has invariably shown remarkable
perseverance and fortitude'.
Surprisingly
Godeffroy offered her a ten year contract, but before entrusting her
to her career, he taught how to handle firearms, to skin and
eviscerate birds and mammals, and--eager for Aboriginal relics--how
to pack human skulls and skeletons. He also fitted her out with a
workmanlike 'trousseau' including a pocket lens, a microscope, 6
insect cages, rags for packing, 6 tins of spirits, 20 pounds of tow,
5 quires of tissue paper, some bottles for live snakes, gunpowder
and small shot, percussion caps, 100 jars and stoppers, and 2 boxes
of poison. With her she carried David Dietrich's Plant Lexicon, an
English Dictionary and some English lesson books though Amalie's
command of English remained rudimentary.
This
small, stockily-built explorer arrived in Brisbane aboard La
Rochelle in August 1863. She had left her daughter, Charitas in the
care of friends but kept in touch with her by letters, which,
published by her daughter, form the basis of our knowledge. 'With
truly festive feeling', she wrote Charitas on arrival, 'I slung over
my shoulder my case filled with flour, salt, tea, and matches, put
on my large straw hat, and set off on my wanderings'. Instincts of
distance and loneliness were quickly transformed to those of wonder.
'What a lot of stuff is to be found here', she exclaimed, 'you have
only to put out your hands and help yourself'. At first Amalie,
truly feminine in this, worried about her first consignments to
Hamburg; 'they are sure to be a little anxious as to whether I am
equal to the task'. But with the competence of an experienced
collector, she was rapidly launched. Within eight months, she had
explored from Brisbane to Gladstone and Rockhampton and dispatched
12 cases of botanical and other specimens to Hamburg. In the clammy
sub-tropical heat of late summer in Rockhampton she conveyed her
experiences to her daughter.
'You
can have no idea of how things flourish here, and what a scramble
there is for space. Ferns, amongst which I disappear entirely, grow
under the giant trees, and I am often frightened when I have to
force my way through the luxurious creepers, ferns and branches,
Large orchids hang from the trees by almost invisible threads; they
are so wonderfully formed, have such beautiful colour, and look at
me so mysteriously, that I pick them with certain awe'. Her keen eye
noted the unconforming oddities of the land. 'The swans are black,
some mammals have beaks ... and I noticed a water wagtail which
moved its tail not up and down, but from side to side, ... Some
trees shed their bark instead of their leaves, and a mournful
impression is produced by the sight of these giants, chill and naked
among the others'.
If
Australia offered a weird and lonely backdrop for this solitary
woman, it also offered an invigorating freedom. 'No one', she wrote,
'circumscribes my zeal. I stride across the wider plains, wander
through virgin forests. I have felled trees in order to collect
different kinds of wood. I cross rivers and lakes in a small canoe,
visit islands and collect--collect--collect. It is just as if Herr
Godeffroy had made me a present of this vast continent'. But Amalie
Dietrich did more than collect and pack. She was rigorously accurate
in her descriptions, skilful in her collections, and undaunted by
the range of specimens required (once killing and disembowelling a
crocodile), and intellectually committed to her native land. She had
in view 'the scholars who go to work on what I send', and through
them she foresaw that 'I shall gain recognition'. Recognition was
important to her.
Amalie
remained in Queensland for eight years. On every available ship she
consigned to Europe cases of stuffed birds, preserved mammals, and
always plants and more plants. In Rockhampton, fire destroyed her
possessions. Would Godeffroy lose confidence in her? she wondered.
Would she be recalled? Far from recalling, Godeffroy re-equipped
her. In 1869 she was in Bowen, visited Holbourne Island and the
Great Barrier Reef and, back to Bowen, gratified her employer by
shipping home 13 Aboriginal skeletons and several skulls. In March
1871 she left for
Brisbane,
Sydney and Melbourne where von Mueller, her fellow countryman,
received her before her trip to Tonga and the islands. Her
reputation had preceded her. In 1867 Amalie was elected a Fellow of
Stettin Entomological Society and won a gold medal and first prize
in the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867 for a rare collection of
50 blocks of wood, each half a trunk in thickness, representative of
Queensland trees. It was not for nothing she was called 'the
fearless Frau Amalie Dietrich'. Entirely resolute in her scientific
searches, careless of the nature of the reception by an alien
society, Amalie set no premium on comfort and joyfully 'lighted upon
treasures no one has secured before me'. Even in her own country she
would have been a striking figure: in the Colonies her
professionalism and self-sufficiency distinguished and emancipated
her. She remained totally unaffected by the confining mores of her
time.
In
1873 Amalie Dietrich arrived back in Hamburg, 'a little,
grey-haired, bent lady, wearing canvas shoes with slits in them for
greater comfort' and accompanied by two tame eagles. 'Within a
limited circle', historian of botany L. A. Gilbert sums up
judiciously, 'she was highly respected as an ardent collector and
accurate observer. She had, reputedly, produced in Australia what
was said for her time, to be the most important collection made by
any single person'. In recognition Godeffroy employed her at his
museum for thirteen years and, when his collections passed to the
City of Hamburg, Amalie gained a post as Curator for the remainder
of her life at the Botanical Museum. Her own large collections
remained intact until damaged by air raids in World War II, but
duplicates of many Australian botanical specimens were sent to
Mueller at the National Herbarium in Melbourne. Amalie thus served
both Germany and Australia and fertilized botanical science. Mueller
repaid her by naming several plants in her honour, Acacia
dietrichiana, Bonamia dietrichiana, and the moss Endotrichella
dietrichiae; and several species of algae were named for her. A
number of Australian insects also bear her name, while the famous
Australian Skipper Butterfly of Queensland, Cephrenes amalia,
flutters perennially in the regions she explored.
Notes
of Sources
Charitas
Bischoff Amalie Dietrich: ein Leben (Berlin, 1917). Charitas
Bischoff.
The
Hard Road: the life story of Amalie Dietrich, Naturalist, 1821-1891
English translation by A. Liddell Geddie. (London 1931).
Ann
Moyal, Scientists in Nineteenth Century Australia. A Documentary
History. Cassell Australia, 1976.
A.
Jefferis Turner, 'Amalie Dietrich--A Forgotten Naturalist', The
Queensland Naturalist, P.V. 8, pp82-88, September 1933.
E.M.
Webster, Whirlwinds in the plain. Ludwig Leichardt- friends, foes
and history. Melbourne University Press, 1980.
Citation
Details
Title: Amalie
Dietrich: a singular botanical and natural history collector in
nineteenth century Australia.
Author: Ann
Moyal
Publication: M
A R G I N: life & letters in early Australia (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November
1, 2009
Publisher: Mulini
Press
Issue: 79
Page: 5(5)
