Henrik Johan Holmberg Explained

Henrik Johan Holmberg
Birth Date:	3 January 1818
Birth Place:	Kökar, Åland
Death Date:	23 December 1864
Death Place:	Helsinki, Uusimaa
Other Names:	Heinrich Johann Holmberg
Education:	University of Helsinki
Nationality:	Finnish

Henrik Johan Holmberg or Heinrich Johann Holmberg (3 January 1818 in Kökar – 23 December 1864 in Helsinki) was a Finnish naturalist, geologist (mineralogist) and ethnographer.^[1] He was the first recorder of the Awa'uq Massacre in the Russian America of Shelikhov-Golikov Company.^{[2] [3]} Henrik Holmberg followed in 1851 to document an evolved origin story and several other stories as told by Arsenti Aminak (his memory of Russian conquest at Awa’uq that Aminak survived as a young boy).^[4]

In 1839 he became a student of the Mining Inspectorate of Finland, in 1841 was registered as an extra conductor and in 1850 went to pan for gold to Russian America. There Holmberg assembled a rich collection of natural history specimens and studied local languages and ethnography of Alaska Natives (as Die Konjagen = Koniag Alutiiq of Kodiak, Die Thlinkithen = Tlingit, Die Thnaina = Dena'ina of Kenai). After his return to Finland in 1852 he issued "Etnographische Skizzen über die Völker des russischen Amerika" (in Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae. 1856: Vol. 4, 1863: Vol. 7), later - Mineralogischer Wegweiser durch Finland (1857) and Materialien zur Geognosie Finlands (1858). Holmberg worked in the historical museum of the Helsinki University and published a description of the Finnish archaeological finds from the Neolithic and Bronze Age, List and illustrations of Finnish antiquities (1863), the first detailed work on this subject.

Taxonomic honors

• Trachypachus holmbergi Mannerheim, 1853.^[5]

Original publications

• Geognostische Bemerkungen auf einer Baidarkenfahrt um die Insel Kadjak: Augeführt im Sommer 1851 (1853)
• Ethnographische Skizzen über die Völker des russischen Amerika I–II (1855–1862)
• Mineralogischer Wegweiser durch Finnland I–II (1857)
• Materialier till Finlands geognosi I–II (1858)
• Förteckning och afbildningar af finska fornlemningar I–II (1859–1863)
• Katalog öfver Kejserliga Alexanders-Universitetets Etnografiska Samlingar (1859)

Notes and References

1. https://ylioppilasmatrikkeli.fi/henkilo.php?id=15718 Ylioppilasmatrikkeli 1640–1852.
2. Holmberg, Johann Heinrich: "Ethnographic Sketches of the Peoples of Russian America." Acta Societatis Scientiarum Fennicae. Vol. 4 (1856), Vol. 7 (1863), (Helsinki). Translated by Richard A. Pierce. Alaska Division of State Libraries, 1974
3. Heinrich J. Holmberg (1985), Holmberg's Ethnographic Sketches. Translated by Marvin W. Falk, edited by Fritz, Limestone Press, Fairbanks
4. Drabek, Alisha Susana 2012. Liitukut Sugpiat'stun (we are learning how to be real people): Exploring Kodiak Alutiiq literature through core values. A thesis Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Fairbanks, Alaska, December 2012.
5. Bousquet, Yves (2012). Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico. In ZooKeys, 245: 1–1722. (Trachypachus holmbergi Mannerheim, 1853: 119. Type locality: «ad ostia fl[umen] Kaktnu [= Kenai River] peninsulae Kenai [Alaska]» (original citation). Holotype [by monotypy] location unknown (possibly in ZMH). Synonymy established by LeConte (1857c: 31). — Etymology. The specific name was proposed for the Finnish naturalist, geologist, and ethnographer Heinrich [Henrik] Johan Holmberg [1818-1864], who visited Russian America in 1850 and 1851 and collected insects.)