Leopold von Schrenck

Leopold von Schrenck (Russian: Леопольд Иванович фон Шренк; 1826 – 8 January 1894) was a Baltic German zoologist, geographer and ethnographer from Russia.

Schrenck came from a Baltic German family, and was born and brought up near Chotenj, south-west of St Petersburg. He received his doctorate from the University of Tartu, and then studied natural science in Berlin and Königsberg. He joined the crew of the Aurora in the circumnavigation of the world.

In 1853 Schrenck was sent by the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences to explore the Amurland on board the schooner Vostok. He reached the mouth of the Amur in September 1854 with the botanist Carl Maximowicz. In February 1855 he visited Sakhalin and then explored the Amur in the spring and summer. In 1856 he returned overland to Europe, via Lake Baykal. He published his findings in his Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande (1860). He was awarded the Konstantin medal by the Russian Geographical Society.

In later years Schrenck turned his attention to the study of the native peoples of Russia. On 10 November, 1879 he was appointed director of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St Petersburg.

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