Editing Carl Linnaeus (section)

==Collections==
[[File:External Statues, Palm House, Sefton Park (4).jpg|thumb|left|upright|''Linnaeus'' marble by [[Léon-Joseph Chavalliaud]] (1899), outside the Palm House at [[Sefton Park]] in [[Liverpool]]]]
At the end of his lifetime the Linnean collection in [[Uppsala]] was considered one of the finest collections of natural history objects in Sweden. Next to his own collection he had also built up a museum for the university of Uppsala, which was supplied by material donated by [[Carl Gyllenborg]] (in 1744–1745), crown-prince [[Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden|Adolf Fredrik]] (in 1745), Erik Petreus (in 1746), [[Claes Grill]] (in 1746), Magnus Lagerström (in 1748 and 1750) and [[Jonas Alströmer]] (in 1749). The relation between the museum and the private collection was not formalised and the steady flow of material from Linnean pupils were incorporated to the private collection rather than to the museum.<ref name="Wallin, L. 2001">[http://www.evolutionsmuseet.uu.se/samling/UUZM04_Linnaeus.pdf Wallin, L. 2001.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027143836/http://www.evolutionsmuseet.uu.se/samling/UUZM04_Linnaeus.pdf |date=27 October 2012 }} Catalogue of type specimens. 4. Linnaean specimens. – pp. [1], 1–128. Uppsala. (Uppsala University, Museum of Evolution, Zoology Section).</ref> Linnaeus felt his work was reflecting the harmony of nature and he said in 1754 "the earth is then nothing else but a museum of the all-wise creator's masterpieces, divided into three chambers". He had turned his own estate into a microcosm of that 'world museum'.<ref>Lisbet Koerner, "Carl Linnaeus in his Time and Place", in Cultures of Natural History, ed. Nicholas Jardine, [[James A. Secord]], and Emma C. Spary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 145–162.</ref>

In April 1766 parts of the town were destroyed by a fire and the Linnean private collection was subsequently moved to a barn outside the town, and shortly afterwards to a single-room stone building close to his [[Linnaeus's Hammarby|country house at Hammarby]] near Uppsala. This resulted in a physical separation between the two collections; the museum collection remained in the botanical garden of the university. Some material which needed special care (alcohol specimens) or ample storage space was moved from the private collection to the museum.

In Hammarby the Linnean private collections suffered seriously from damp and the depredations by mice and insects. Carl von Linné's son (Carl Linnaeus) inherited the collections in 1778 and retained them until his own death in 1783. Shortly after Carl von Linné's death his son confirmed that mice had caused "horrible damage" to the plants and that also moths and mould had caused considerable damage.<ref name="Dance, S.P. 1967">Dance, S.P. 1967. Report on the Linnaean shell collection. – Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 178 (1): 1–24, Pl. 1–10.</ref> He tried to rescue them from the neglect they had suffered during his father's later years, and also added further specimens. This last activity however reduced rather than augmented the scientific value of the original material.

In 1784 the young medical student [[James Edward Smith (botanist)|James Edward Smith]] purchased the entire specimen collection, library, manuscripts, and correspondence of Carl Linnaeus from his widow and daughter and transferred the collections to London.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=White|first1=Paul|title=The purchase of knowledge: James Edward Smith and the Linnean collections|journal=Endeavour|year=1999|volume=23|issue=3|page=126|doi=10.1016/S0160-9327(99)01212-0|url=https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/hi916/week5/white_the_purchase_of_knowledge.pdf|access-date=28 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813113652/http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/hi916/week5/white_the_purchase_of_knowledge.pdf|archive-date=13 August 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[[#Fries|Fries (2011)]], pp. 342–357.</ref> Not all material in Linné's private collection was transported to England. Thirty-three fish specimens preserved in alcohol were not sent and were later lost.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wallin |first1=Lars |title=Catalogue of type specimens. 4. |journal=Uppsala University Museum of Evolution Zoology Section |date=14 February 2001 |issue=6 |page=4 |url=http://www.evolutionsmuseet.uu.se/samling/UUZM04_Linnaeus.pdf |access-date=25 February 2019 |archive-date=27 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027143836/http://www.evolutionsmuseet.uu.se/samling/UUZM04_Linnaeus.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In London Smith tended to neglect the zoological parts of the collection; he added some specimens and also gave some specimens away.<ref>Examples are evident in the [http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?PPN603451020 Portland catalogue p. 76 Lot 1715 and p. 188 Lot 3997.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018045955/https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN603451020 |date=18 October 2019 }} "A catalogue of the Portland Museum, lately the property of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, deceased: Which will be sold by auction by Mr. Skinner and Co. On Monday the 24th of April, 1786, and the thirty-seven following days (...) at her late dwelling-house, in Privy-Garden, Whitehall, by order of the Acting Executrix." – pp. i–viii [= 1–8], 3–194, pl. [1]. [London]. (Skinner).</ref> Over the following centuries the Linnean collection in London suffered enormously at the hands of scientists who studied the collection, and in the process disturbed the original arrangement and labels, added specimens that did not belong to the original series and withdrew precious original type material.<ref name="Dance, S.P. 1967" />

Much material which had been intensively studied by Linné in his scientific career belonged to the collection of [[Louisa Ulrika of Prussia|Queen Lovisa Ulrika]] (1720–1782) (in the Linnean publications referred to as "Museum Ludovicae Ulricae" or "M. L. U."). This collection was donated by her grandson [[Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden|King Gustav IV Adolf]] (1778–1837) to the museum in Uppsala in 1804. Another important collection in this respect was that of her husband [[Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden|King Adolf Fredrik]] (1710–1771) (in the Linnean sources known as "Museum Adolphi Friderici" or "Mus. Ad. Fr."), the wet parts (alcohol collection) of which were later donated to the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]], and is today housed in the [[Swedish Museum of Natural History]] at [[Stockholm]]. The dry material was transferred to Uppsala.<ref name="Wallin, L. 2001" />