George Henry Frederick Ulrich

Not to be confused with the American volcanologist George Ulrich (American geologist).

George H. F. Ulrich FGS
Born	Georg Heinrich Friedrich Ulrich 7 July 1830 Zellerfeld, Upper Harz, Germany
Died	26 May 1900 (1900-05-27) (aged 69) Port Chalmers, New Zealand
Occupation(s)	Mineralogist, university professor, director of School of Mines
Spouse	Catherine Sarah Spence
Children	Frank Ferdinand Aplin Ulrich (surgeon), George Henry Roemer Ulrich (lawyer)

George Henry Frederick Ulrich FGS (born as Georg Heinrich Friedrich Ulrich) (7 July 1830 – 26 May 1900) was a notable New Zealand mineralogist, university professor and director of the school of mines.[1]

Early life

He was born in Zellerfeld, Germany in 1830.[2]

Australia

Ulrich arrived in Melbourne, Australia in 1853 where he worked as a geologist and later became a lecturer in mining at the University of Melbourne.[1]

Ulrich was one of a number of influential German-speaking residents — such as Ludwig Becker, Hermann Beckler, William Blandowski, Amalie Dietrich, Wilhelm Haacke, Diedrich Henne, Gerard Krefft, Johann Luehmann, Johann Menge, Carl Mücke (a.k.a. Muecke), Ludwig Preiss, Carl Ludwig Christian Rümker (a.k.a. Ruemker), Moritz Richard Schomburgk, Richard Wolfgang Semon, Karl Theodor Staiger, Eugene von Guérard, Robert von Lendenfeld, Ferdinand von Mueller, Georg von Neumayer, and Carl Wilhelmi — who brought their "epistemic traditions" to Australia, and not only became "deeply entangled with the Australian colonial project", but also were "intricately involved in imagining, knowing and shaping colonial Australia" (Barrett, et al., 2018, p.2).[3]

He was appointed curator of the mineral collection and lecturer in mineralogy at the Industrial and Technological Museum in Melbourne,[1] and played a significant role in the establishment of the Mount Bischoff tin mine in Tasmania, and the appointment of its manager of 30 years, H. W. F. Kayser.

Death

He died on 26 May 1900 examining rock specimens on Flagstaff Point, Port Chalmers near Dunedin, when he fell 100 feet (30 m).[4] He was buried in the Dunedin Northern Cemetery.[1]

Works

• Gold and silver bearing reefs of St. Arnaud : report on the gold and silver bearing reefs of the district of St. Arnaud (1864)
• Notes and observations on the Nuggetty Reef, Maldon (1868)
• Contributions to the mineralogy of Victoria (1870)
• Mineral resources north of Port Augusta : report of the mineral resources of the country lying within 250 miles north of Port Augusta (1872)
• A descriptive catalogue of the specimens in the Industrial and Technological Museum, Melbourne, illustrating the rock system of Victoria (1875)

Notes

1. Hoare, Michael (1976). "Ulrich, Georg Heinrich Friedrich (George Henry Frederick) (1830–1900)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 6. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
2. Watters, W. A. (1993). "George Henry Frederick Ulrich". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
3. In relation to "Australasia", another German-speaking explorer and geologist, Julius von Haast (1822-1887), was appointed as the inaugural Curator/Director of the Canterbury Museum, in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1867.
4. "Fatal accident to Professor Ulrich". Otago Witness. 31 May 1900. p. 46.

References

• Barrett, L., Eckstein, L., Hurley, A.W. & Schwarz A. (2018), "Remembering German-Australian Colonial Entanglement: An Introduction", Postcolonial Studies, Vol.21, No.1, (January 2018), pp.1-5. doi:10.1080/13688790.2018.1443671

External links

• Works by or about George Henry Frederick Ulrich at the Internet Archive

• Birch, William D.; Darragh, Thomas A. (2015). "George Henry Frederick Ulrich (1830–1900): pioneer mineralogist and geologist in Victoria". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 127 (1): 17. doi:10.1071/RS15002. ISSN 0035-9211.