George Engelmann
| George Engelmann | |
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| Born | 2 February 1809 Frankfurt am Main |
| Died | 4 February 1884 (aged 75) |
| Citizenship |
Free City of Frankfurt American |
| Nationality | German, American |
| Fields | botany |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Engelm. |
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George Engelmann, also known as Georg Engelmann, (2 February 1809 – 4 February 1884) was a German-American botanist. He was instrumental in describing the flora of the west of North America, then very poorly known; he was particularly active in the Rocky Mountains and northern Mexico, one of his constant companions being another German-American, the botanical illustrator Paulus Roetter.
George Engelmann was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the oldest of thirteen children, nine of whom reached maturity. His father, Julius Bernhardt Engelmann, was a member of a family from which for several successive generations were chosen ministers for the Reformed Church at Bacharach-on-the-Rhine. Julius was a graduate of the University of Halle, and was also educated for the ministry, but he devoted his life to education. He established a school for young women in Frankfurt, which were rare at the time. George Engelmann's mother, Julie Antoinette, was the only daughter of Antoinette André and George Oswald May. The latter, in his earlier years, was an artist of note at the Court of Weimar. Julie Antoinette was Julius Engelmann's coadjutor in the school for young women, and its success was largely due to her management and tact.
His uncle, Friedrich Theodor, a German pioneer of Illinois, was an early American viticulturist.
George Engelmann received his early education at the gymnasium in Frankfurt. According to himself, he first became interested in plants around age 15. At this age, also, his disposition to study was such that he voluntarily devoted much of his time after the performance of his stated school duties to the study of history, modern languages, and drawing.
Assisted by a scholarship founded by the “Reformed Congregation of Frankfort,” in 1827 he began the study of the sciences in the University of Heidelberg, where he met Karl Schimper and Alexander Braun. With the latter especially an intimate friendship and correspondence were preserved unbroken until the death of Braun in 1877. With Schimper also he retained friendship, although that penetrating but erratic genius after obtaining a remarkable grasp of philosophical botany and laying the foundations of phyllotaxy abandoned the subject entirely.
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