Life As A Naturalist
On a recommendation from Linnaeus, Dahl served as curator at the private natural museum and botanical garden of Claes Alströmer, a Linnaean disciple, at Kristinedal in Gamlestaden, outside Gothenburg. Dahl's employment involved several journeys in Sweden and abroad, where he collected natural history specimens both for Alströmer and himself. During that time, Alströmer received several plants from Linnaeus himself, and Dahl was able to review the Linnean collection, which is now included in the collections of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.
In 1781, Alströmer provided the financial backing for Linnaeus's son, Carl Linnaeus the Younger, to journey to England; on the Younger's death in 1783, Linnaeus sent Alströmer the herbarium parvum. This herbarium consisted of duplicates sorted out from Linnaeus' personal herbarium and other plants collected by his son. Dahl catalogued every specimen in the herbarium in his own handwriting, noting whether they came from "a Linné P." (father) or "a Linné f." (son). It is clear that Dahl also received specimens; some specimens are labelled "Dahl a Linné P." or "Dahl a Linné f." On Alströmer's death in 1794, the herbarium was left to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, then to the Swedish Museum of Natural History. The specimens Dahl and Alströmer received from Linnaeus and his son are in the Linnean herbarium in Stockholm.
When Alströmer experienced financial losses in 1785 and moved to his estate at Gåsevadsholm, outside Kungsbacka, Dahl followed.
In 1786, an honorary Doctorate of Medicine was conferred on Dahl in Kiel, Germany, and the following year he became associate professor at the Academy of Åbo in Turku (today's University of Helsinki), teaching medicine and botany. He brought his personal herbarium to Turku, which later was destroyed in the historic fire of 1827. Parts of Dahl's collections have been preserved in Sahlberg's herbarium in the Botanical Museum at the University of Helsinki, and in Giseke's herbarium in the Royal Botanical Garden at Edinburgh.
Dahl died in 1789 in Turku in the age of 38.
Read more about this topic: Anders Dahl
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