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Address:
Gothersgade 130, DK-1123 Copenhagen, Denmark
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Ib Friis, Keeper
ibf@bot.ku.dk
Phone: +45 35 32 21 97
Fax: + 45 35 32 22 10
Links:
Botanical Museum
University of Copenhagen
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Description:
Historical Collections: The Botanical Museum originated as a part of the Botanical Garden, which was established by a Royal Decree in 1600. The preserved botanical collections were later separated as a herbarium.
Among the first important collections to be incorporated in the new Royal Museum museum were the botanical collections made by Pehr Forsskl on the Royal Danish expedition to Egypt and Yemen in 1761-63. This was a multidisciplinary expedition which made observations and collected scientific material within many fields, including botany, zoology, geography, ethnology, etc. The other famous member of this expedition was the ethnologist, geographer and astronomist Carsten Niebuhr after whom the University of Copenhagen has named its institute for Oriental Studies, the Carsten Niehbur Institute. In 1770 all the collections of the Royal Museum were handed over to the University, and the botanical collections kept at the University Botanical Garden at Nyhavn. During this period, the collections were used by a number of Copenhagen botanists, for example the well known cyperologist Christen Friis Rottbøll.
Other important early collections from that period are those made by: Johann Gerhard König in South India, Ceylon and Thailand, Paul Erdmann Isert and Peter Thonning in Guinea, and Nathaniel Wallich in Bengal, Nepal, and other parts of India.
Type Catalogue: As the result of the long history of its collections the Botanical Museum has now more than 25.000 type specimens of vascular plants in the herbaria. These are currently being recorded in databases, and most are available on the WWW. Please see: http://www.nathimus.ku.dk/bot/collections.htm - this page contains a review of the collections and a reference to the type database.
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