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Henry Ernest Muhlenberg papers

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Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Call Number:
0443
Repository:
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Extent:
0.4 linear feet (; 1 box [15 folders])
Language:
German
Preferred Citation:
Cite as: Henry Muhlenberg papers (collection 0443), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Date:
1781-1816 (inclusive)
Creator:
Muhlenberg, Gotthilf Henrich Ernst, 1753-1815.
Form:
Letters.
Abstract:
This collection contains scientific letters written to Henry Ernest Muhlenberg (1753-1815). Muhlenberg, a Lutheran pastor and biologist, is considered the first botanist born in America who researched the flora and fauna of his homeland systematically. His work contributed considerably to the advancement of natural science around 1800. Some new descriptions and assignations of North American plants based on the system of Carl von Linné (also known as Carl Linnaeus, 1707-1778) go back to Muhlenberg. He discovered a type of grass of the subfamily of Chloridoideae common in Mexico and the south west of the United States, which after his discovery was named “the Muhlenbergia.” Various types of plants bear the type-epitheton “Muhlenbergii” to honor Henry Ernest Muhlenberg. He also discovered and identified the bog turtle, which got the epitheton “glyptemys muhlenbergii.” The German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765-1812) honored Muhlenberg by naming a genus of grasses “Muhlenbergia.” Also, an American botanical magazine published between 1900 and 1915 was entitled “Muhlenbergia.” His correspondence with various distinguished European and American naturalists was an important aspect of his botanical research. This collection contains only letters addressed to Muhlenberg.

Müller-Jahncke, Wolf-Dieter, “Mühlenberg, Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst,“ Neue Deutsche Biographie 18, 1997, pp. 282-283. Web. Sept. 20, 2011. http://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd11716240X.html Youmans, William Jay, “Sketch of Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg,” The Popular Science Monthly 45, (1894): 689-698. Web. Sept. 20, 2011. http://books.google.de/books?id=9ptJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA689&dq=Gotthilf+Heinrich+Ernst+M%C3%BChlenberg&hl=de&ei=W5FzTsuFL8PW0QG2q-3QDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEYQ6AEwBjgU#v=onepage&q&f=false Wallace, Paul A. W., “Henry Ernest Muhlenberg,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 92:2, Studies of Historical Documents in the Library of the American Philosophical Society (1948): 107-110. Web. Published by: American Philosophical Society. http://www.jstor.org/pss/3143408

Donated by Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, 1878.

At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania:

Johann Friedrich Ernst papers (Am .0625)

Frank M. Etting collection (Collection 0193)

Daybook of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (LCP6)

Benjamin Smith Barton papers (Collection 0034)

Benjamin Smith Barton lecture notes (Collection 1623)

Bartram family papers (Collection 0036) http://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/b/bartram0036.XML

Ferdinand Julius Dreer collection (Collection 0175)

Descriptio uberior graminum et plantarum calamariarum Americæ septentrionalis indigenarum et cicurum. By Henry Muhlenberg. (Api.99 4686)

At other institutions:

Catalogus plantarum Americae Septentrionalis, huc usque cognitarum indigenarum et cicurum : or, A catalogue of the hitherto known native and naturalized plants of North America, arranged according to the sexual system of Linnaeus. By Henry Muhlenberg. At the Library Company in Philadelphia, Pa. (LCP Api.99 433)

Muhlenberg family papers, 1769-1866 at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Pa. http://amphilsoc.org/mole/view?docId=ead/Mss.B.M891-ead.xml

Papers of Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Mühlenberg at the archives of the Francke Foundations in Halle, Germany.

Henry Ernest Muhlenberg letter at the Library of the Gray Herbarium in Cambridge, Mass.

Henry Ernest Muhlenberg papers at the Archives and Special Collections Department of the Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa.

Online publication project at the University of Bamberg: “Transatlantische Briefe” [Transatlantic letters], edited by Matthias Schönhofer. http://www.uni-bamberg.de/hist-ng/forschung/projekt-transatlantische-briefe/muehlenberg-datenbank-test/

People
Subject

Publisher
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Finding Aid Author
Finding aid prepared by Anna Baechtold Georgi and Sarah Newhouse
Finding Aid Date
September 2011
Sponsor
This collection was processed during the Digital Center for Americana Project Phase II, which was funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Richard Lounsbery Foundation.
Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Collection Inventory

1781-1787.
Box 1 Folder 1
1787-1794.
Box 1 Folder 2
1794-1799.
Box 1 Folder 3
1800-1803.
Box 1 Folder 4
1803.
Box 1 Folder 5
1803-1806.
Box 1 Folder 6
1807-1808.
Box 1 Folder 7
1809-1811.
Box 1 Folder 8
1811.
Box 1 Folder 9
1812.
Box 1 Folder 10
1812-1813.
Box 1 Folder 11
1813.
Box 1 Folder 12
1813-1814.
Box 1 Folder 13
1814.
Box 1 Folder 14
1814-1816.
Box 1 Folder 15

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