Life and Letters of Ferdinand von Mueller – serie

Of German origin, Ferdinand von Mueller migrated to Australia in 1847. Government Botanist of Victoria for 43 years until his death in 1896, he was Australia’s greatest scientist of the 19th century – a major contributor to international science, an intrepid explorer of parts of Australia previously unknown to Europeans, and a dominant figure in the scientific and intellectual life of his adopted country.Throughout his working life, Mueller kept up an enormous correspondence. Large numbers of letters by or to him have been located throughout the world, and edited for publication. These constitute a major new research tool for both Australian historians and historians of science. They are also of fundamental importance to Australian taxonomic botany, for Mueller introduced vast numbers of Australian plants to western science.This is the third and final volume of Mueller’s selected correspondence. It covers the last two decades of his life – his most productive period from a scientific point of view – including his work as Government Botanist of Victoria; his multifarious contributions to taxonomy, biogeography and economic botany; his engagement with the exploration of inland Australia, New Guinea and Antarctica; his manifold links with international science; and his evolving personal circumstances as one of the leading citizens of his adopted country. This volume contains a substantial historical introduction, and a further extension of the editorial apparatus developed in previous volumes.

This first of three volumes of Mueller's selected correspondence covers his early life in Germany prior to his migration to Australia, his years in South Australia, and his first years as Government Botanist of Victoria. This was the period during which Mueller undertook his major exploring expeditions in the southeast of the continent and in northern Australia, and also took on the development of Melbourne's famed Botanic Garden. The volume includes family and other letters from Mueller's youth, and later correspondence, both official and private, documenting his formation as a scientist, his building of links with scientists in other parts of the world, his activities as an explorer, and his role in the establishment of new scientific and cultural institutions in Australia during the hectic gold-rush years. There is a substantial historical introduction and an extensive editorial apparatus that will serve all three volumes.