Carl Gustaf Von Mannerheim (naturalist)

Carl Gustaf Von Mannerheim (naturalist)

Count Carl Gustaf Mannerheim (August 10, 1797 Askainen, Finland – October 9, 1854 Stockholm, Sweden) was a Finnish entomologist and governor of the Viipuri province in the Grand Duchy of Finland.

From 1819 he served as the secretary to the Finnish Minister Secretary of State in Saint Petersburg. In 1833 he was appointed governor of the Vaasa Province and soon after of the Viipuri and Savonlinna County. From 1839 until his death he served as the chief judge of the newly formed Imperial Court of Appeals (“Kayserlichen Hofgerichtes”, hovioikeus) in Vyborg.

Mannerheim devoted much of his time to natural sciences and acquired a significant scientific collection of Coleoptera. He published many papers on them and worked on the collections of the natural history museums of Dorpat, Saint-Petersburg and Moscow. He contributed greatly to the knowledge of the coleopteran fauna of Western North America (then Russian America).

Mannerheim was a member of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1827) and of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters (1838) and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1852). He was decorated with the Cross of the Order of Saint Stanislaus and was made a knight of the Order of Saint Vladimir.

He was married to Eva Wilhelmina von Schantz who was one of the leading figures in Finnish society life. His grandson Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (1867–1951) became Marshal and President of Finland.