Natural history collector, museum curator, explorer
Known for
Collecting type specimens for the Godefroy Museum
Koncordie Amalie Dietrich (née Nelle) (26 May 1821 – 9 March 1891)[1] was a German naturalist who was best known for her work in Australia from 1863 to 1872, collecting specimens for the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg.[2]
Whilst in Queensland, Australia, Dietrich "actively sought fresh Aboriginal skeletons for her European clients”.[4] While this is most likely part of a local legend that presents Dietrich as the 'Angel of Black Death, it is accepted that she did send the human remains of several Indigenous Australians to Hamburg. Her contribution to colonialism – pertaining to both the anthropological as well as the botanical aspect – are the subject of recent academic debates.[5]
Career
Amalie Dietrich was born in Siebenlehn, Saxony, German Confederation. In 1846, she married Wilhelm August Salomo Dietrich, a doctor. With no formal training she learnt all she could from him about collecting and they planned careers working as naturalists. Between 1845 and 1862 they made a precarious living collecting Alpine specimens to sell to chemists for medicines and to museums for their natural history collections.[6] Some of the delicate alpine flowers she collected in this period can be seen on display in the Natural History Museum in Freiburg.[6]
Dietrich spent the years from 1863 – 1872 in Queensland, Australia where she collected a wide range of species as well as artefacts created by Indigenous Australians. She is thought to be the first European to find and collect a Taipan snake while she was there.[7]
She collected the type specimens of many species, and in a number of cases the author of the description honoured her in the species epithet (dietrichiae, dietrichiana, amaliae, etc.). Species whose type specimens she collected include:
Current names, synonymy etc based on searches of the Australian Plant Name Index and Plants of the World online. Where no alternative name is given above, the species name is that accepted by either or both of these sources with the exception of the seaweeds.)
Collections
Her collections formed the basis of Zur Flora von Queensland ("On Queensland's Flora", 1875)[11] by Christian Luerssen. While in Australia, she visited Ferdinand von Mueller, and in 1881 Mueller acquired a set of her specimens from Luerssen. (The National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL) holds 2790 of her specimens.)[12] She published nothing in her name. However, her collections continue to be an important resource in herbaria around the world (MEL, B, BM, BRSL, HBG, JE, K, L, MO, P, US, W).[12]
Dietrich Place
Dietrich Place in the Canberra suburb of Chisholm is named in recognition of her work in Australia.[13]
^Clarke, Philip (2008). Aboriginal Plant Collectors: Botanists and Australian Aboriginal People in the Nineteenth Century. Kenthurst: Rosenberg Publishing. p. 144.
^ abAmalie Dietrich 1821-1891, Studies in International Cultural relations, Number 29, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart, Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 1988, p.13
Stefanie Affeldt, Wulf D. Hund: From ‘Plant Hunter’ to ‘Tomb Raider’. The Changing Image of Amalie Dietrich. In: Australian Studies Journal | Zeitschrift für Australienstudien, 33-34, 2019-2020, pp. 89–124, open-access
Dietrich, Lodewyckx, & Lodewyckx, A. (1943). Australische Briefe / von Amalie Dietrich; with a biographical sketch, exercises and a vocabulary, edited by Augustin Lodewyckx. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press in association with Oxford University Press.
Bischoff, C. (1914). " Amalie Dietrich, ein Leben von Charitas Bischoff. (Grote'sche Sammlung von Werken zeitgenössischer Schriftsteller; Bd. 97). Berlin: Grote.
Lüttge, U., & Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen. (1988). " Amalie Dietrich (1821-1891) German biologist in Australia, homage to Australia's Bicentenary, 1988 / edited by Ulrich Lüttge. (Studies in international cultural relations; v. 29). Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
