Johann George Luehmann Explained

Birth Name:	Johann Georg Lühmann
Birth Date:	12 May 1843
Birth Place:	Ostmoorende, Prussia (now Moorende, Jork, Germany)
Death Place:	South Yarra, Victoria, Australia
Nationality:	Naturalised British Subject in Victoria (1897)^[1]
Fields:	Botany
Workplaces:	National Herbarium of Victoria
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Thesis1 Url:	and
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Author Abbrev Bot:	Luehm.
Spouse:	Flora Winifred Tivey (1854-1882) (m. June 1881) Maude Isolene Isabel Merchant (1865-1957) (m. 1891)
Partners:	)-->
Parents:	Johann Christian Lühmann (father) Anna Lohmann (mother)
Signature:	Signature of Johann George Luehmann (29 August 1892).tif

Johann George Luehmann (12 May 1843 – 18 November 1904) was an Australian botanist, who served as the Assistant Botanist and, later, as the Curator at the National Herbarium of Victoria, and who also, from 1896, served as the Government Botanist of Victoria.

Family

The son of Johann Christian Lühmann (1818-1890), and Anna Lühmann (1826-), née Lohmann, Johann Georg Lühmann was born in Ostmoorende, Prussia (now Moorende, Jork, Germany) on 12 May 1843.

He married Flora Winifred "Dora" Tivey (1854-1882) on 4 June 1881.^{[2] [3]} Flora died on 20 January 1882,^[4] one week after delivering a stillborn daughter (on 13 January 1822).^[5]

He married Maude Isolene Isabel Merchant (1865-1957) at South Yarra on 16 September 1891.^{[6] [7] [8]} They had five children.^[9]

Australia

1863

Luehmann emigrated to Australia in 1863, arriving in Melbourne in the White Star ship Queen of the South on 8 August 1863.

He 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 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, George Ulrich, 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).^[10] In 1895 he was the president of "The German Club of Victoria" (Deutschen Vereins von Victoria).^[11]

Assistant Botanist: National Herbarium of Victoria

In 1867, following the resignation of von Mueller's secretary, Ernst Bernard Heyne, Luehmann was appointed as the assistant to Ferdinand von Mueller at the National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne;^[12] and remained in the position until 1896.^[13]

Field Naturalists Club of Victoria

He was a foundation member (on 17 May 1880) of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria,^{[14] [15]} and served as its vice-president from 1899 to 1901.^[16]

Curator: National Herbarium of Victoria

Leuhmann was appointed Curator of the National Herbarium of Victoria following the death of Ferdinand von Mueller on 10 October 1896.^[17]

Government Botanist of Victoria

A short time after von Mueller's death, Luehmann was appointed Victorian Government Botanist.^[18]

Publications

• Reliquiæ Muellerianæ: Descriptions of New Australian Plants in the Melbourne Herbarium, The Victorian Naturalist (1896-1897):
  • Luehmann, J.G., (1896a), "Acacia tysonii, ", The Victorian Naturalist, Vol.13, No.8, (November 1896), pp.111-112.
  • Luehmann, J.G., (1896b), "Acacia cuthbertsonii, ", and "Acacia palustris, ", The Victorian Naturalist, Vol.13, No.9, (December 1896), pp.117.
  • Luehmann, J.G., (1897a), "Eucalyptus torquata, ", The Victorian Naturalist, Vol.13, No.11, (February 1897), pp.117.
  • Luehmann, J.G., (1897b), "Eucalyptus corrugata, ", The Victorian Naturalist, Vol.13, No.12, (March-April 1897), pp.168.
• Luehmann, J.G. (1898a), A Short Dichotomous Key to the Hitherto Known Species of Eucalyptus, Melbourne: Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Luehmann, J.G. (1898b), "Observations on Xerotes sororia, ", The Victorian Naturalist, Vol.14, No.10, (10 February 1898), pp.147-148.
• Luehmann, J.G. (1898c), "Description of a new Australian labiate plant (Hemigenia macphersoni,)", The Victorian Naturalist, Vol.15, No.2, (9 June 1898), p.20.
• Luehmann, J.G. (1898d), "Some Observations on Pre-Linnean Botanists", The Victorian Naturalist, Vol.15, No.5, (8 September 1898), pp.50-58.
• Luehmann, J.G. (1901), "Description of a New Lobelia from Western Australia (Lobelia toppii,)", The Victorian Naturalist, Vol.17, No.9, (10 January 1901), p.169.

Death

He died, after a short illness, at his South Yarra residence on 18 November 1904,^{[19] [20]} and was buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery on 19 November 1904.^{[21] [22]}

Legacy

Luehmann Street

Luehmann Street, one of the original streets in Page, Australian Capital Territory was named after him in 1969.^[23]

Species

Species named in his honour include:

• Acacia luehmannii,
• Bassia luehmannii,
• Casuarina luehmannii,
• Darwinia luehmannii,
• Eucalyptus luehmanniana,
• Leptospermum luehmannii,
• Phyllota luehmannii,
• Pultenaea luehmannii,
• Rhodobryum luehmannianum,
• Stipa luehmannii,
• Syzygium luehmannii,

Notes

1. https://www.ancestry.com.au/sharing/4459038?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a2274706879356970522b424f383133787431573136717046677977372b4c6c4753306b654a765778415057733d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d Johann George Luehmann in the Victoria, Australia, Index to Naturalisation Certificates, 1851-1928 (Certificate no.6495, date: 2 February 1897), at ancestry.com.
2. http://www.tiveyfamilytree.com/Flora-Winifred-Tivey-Johann-Luehmann-Marriage-Australia.htm "Marriage of Flora-Winifred-Tivey-and-Johann-Luckman Victoria Aus", Tivey-Family-Tree
3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3878309 Marriages: Bertram—Leuhmann, The Argus, (Saturday, 10 September 1927), p.13.
4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11529875 Deaths: Luehmann, The Argus, (Saturday, 21 January 1882), p.1.
5. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11529563 Births: Luehmann, The Argus, (Wednesday, 18 January 1882), p.1.
6. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article241548916 Marriages: Luehmann—Merchant, The (Melbourne) Herald, (Wednesday, 14 October 1891), p.2.
7. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1590014 Judicial and Law Notices: Frederick Leopold Merchant, The Argus, (Wednesday, 10 January 1917), p.5.
8. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71774472 Deaths: Luehmann, The Argus, (Friday, 4 January 1957), p.15.
9. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148216369 Personal, The Geelong Advertiser, (Saturday, 19 November 1904), p.2.
10. 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.
11. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/229607028 (News item), Australische Zeitung, (Wednesday, 10 July 1895), p.5.
12. See the letter from Luehmann, at the goldfields in Matlock, Victoria, to his father in Germany, dated 30 January 1869: Georg Luehmann to Johann Christian Luehmann, 1869-01-30 (M69.01.30) (R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller.
13. Web site: Luehmann, Johann Georg (1843 - 1904). 31 July 2017. Encyclopedia of Australian Science. 2015.
14. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/254853 (News Items), The Argus, (Tuesday, 18 May 1880), p.5.
15. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/202142509 News of the Day, The Age, (Tuesday, 18 May 1880), p.2.
16. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90319205 Victorian Field Naturalists' Club, The (Box Hill) Reporter, (Friday, 28 December 1900), p.2.
17. Web site: Luehmann, Johann Georg (1843–1904). Australian National Herbarium. 9 August 2014. 31 July 2017.
18. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66533744 Baron Von Mueller's Successor, The (Perth) Inquirer and Commercial News, (Friday, 20 November 1896), p.5.
19. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10351176 Deaths: Luehmann, The Argus, (Saturday, 19 November 1904), p.9.
20. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10353378 Judicial and Law Notice: Johann George Luehmann, The Argus, (Saturday, 3 December 1904), p.13.
21. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10351176 Funeral Notices: Luehmann, The Argus, (Saturday, 19 November 1904), p.9.
22. https://prov.vic.gov.au/archive/E57636C1-F1CD-11E9-AE98-E546C92F0FEB?image=1 92/923 Johann G. Luehmann: Grant of Probate, Public Record Office Victoria
23. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/26029308 "Australian Capital Territory: National Memorials Ordinance 1928-1959: Division of Page", Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, No.96, (Thursday, 20 November 1969), pp.6935-6938.

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.
• Anon (1904), "The Late J.G. Luehmann, F.L.S.", The Victorian Naturalist, Vol.21, No.8, (8 December 1904), pp.108–109.