Gerard Krefft

For the German ichthyologist and herpetologist, see Gerhard Krefft.

Gerard Krefft
Gerard Krefft, 1869–1870
Born(1830-02-17)17 February 1830
Duchy of Brunswick
Died18 February 1881(1881-02-18) (aged 51)
Woolloomooloo, New South Wales
Resting placeSt Jude's Church, Randwick
NationalityNaturalised British Subject in New South Wales (1864)[1]
EducationSt Martin's College, Braunschweig
Known forDiscovery, identification, and naming of the
Queensland lungfish
SpouseAnnie McPhail (m.1869)
Children4
Relativesichthyologist and herpetologist
Gerhard Krefft (1912–1993) (great-nephew)[2]
AwardsOrder of the Crown of Italy
Fellow of the Linnean Society
Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society of London
Scientific career
Fieldsnatural history, zoology, palaeontology, ichthyology, entomology, herpetology
InstitutionsNational Museum of Victoria
Australian Museum
Author abbrev. (zoology)kreftii

Johann Ludwig (Louis) Gerard Krefft (17 February 1830 – 18 February 1881), was an Australian artist, draughtsman, scientist, and natural historian who served as the curator of the Australian Museum for 13 years (1861–1874).[3] He was one of Australia's first and most influential zoologists and palaeontologists.

Some of [Krefft's] observations on animals have not been surpassed and can no longer be equalled because of the spread of settlement.—Rutledge & Whitley, 1974.[4]
Mr. Krefft was probably the first man who thoroughly studied the reptiles of Australia.—Obituary, in Nature, 21 April 1881[5]

He is also noted as an ichthyologist for his scientific description of the Queensland lungfish (now recognized as a classic example of Darwin's "living fossils");[6] and, in addition to his numerous scientific papers and his extensive series of weekly newspaper articles on natural history, his publications include The Snakes of Australia (1869), Guide to the Australian Fossil Remains in the Australian Museum (1870f), The Mammals of Australia (1871f), On Australian Entozoa (1872a), and Catalogue of the Minerals and Rocks in the Australian Museum (1873a).[7]

Krefft was one of the very few Australian scientists in the 1860s and 1870s to support Darwin's position on the origin of species by means of natural selection. According to Macdonald, et al. (2007), he was one of the first to warn of the devastating effects of the invasive species (sheep, cats, etc.) on native species.[8][9] Also, along with several significant others — such as Charles Darwin, during his 1836 visit to the Blue Mountains,[10] Edward Wilson, the proprietor of the Melbourne Argus,[11] and George Bennett, one of the trustees of the Australian Museum[12] — Krefft expressed considerable concern in relation to the effects of the expanding European settlement upon the indigenous population.[13][14]

Gerard Krefft is a significant figure in the history of nineteenth century Australian science. He is celebrated not only for his zoological work but as a man who was prepared to challenge individuals on points of scientific fact regardless of their position in Sydney society or metropolitan science. He is also remembered as one who could be abrasive and incautious in delicate political situations and a man whose career and life ultimately ended in tragedy. The dramatic end of Krefft's career in 1874 — where he was stripped of his position as Australian Museum curator, physically removed from the Museum and his character assassinated — often overshadows his early career and his development as a scientist.—Stephens (2013), p. 187.
  1. ^ Gerard Krefft in the New South Wales, Australia, Certificates of Naturalization, 1849–1903 (Certificate no.64/36, date: 12 April 1864), at ancestry.com.
  2. ^ Stehmann, M. & Hulley, P.A. (1994), "Gerhard Krefft, 30 March 1912 – 20 March 1993", Copeia, Vol.1994, No.2 (16 May 1994), pp. 558–564. JSTOR 1447019
  3. ^ According to Davidson (2017, p. 15) Krefft was "one of [the Museum's] most accomplished curators".
  4. ^ Vanessa Finney (2023, p. 67) notes that Peter Menkhorst (Menkhorst, 2009, passim) "reported that of the 34 mammal taxa the [Blankowski/Krefft] expedition recorded, ten are extinct, nine no longer occur in the region, four are present but in greatly reduced numbers, seven have no change in distribution and only four have probably expanded their range".
  5. ^ Anon (1881), p. 589.
  6. ^ "Despite his interest in reptiles, mammals and fossils, Krefft cemented his reputation as an ichthyologist with the description in 1870 of the Queensland Lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri."(McGrouther, 2006, p. 103)
  7. ^ See list of Publications, below.
  8. ^ See for instance, Krefft's observations (1862, p. 12) within his 1862 description of the Eastern Chæropus (Chæropus occidentalis):
    "This singular animal which Sir Thomas Mitchell first discovered in his expedition to the Darling, June 16, 1836, is still found on the plains of the Murray; though it is exceedingly rare, and is disappearing as fast as the native population. The large flocks of sheep and herds of cattle occupying the country will soon disperse those individuals which are still to be found in the so-called settled districts, and it will become more and more difficult to procure specimens for our national collection."
  9. ^ See also Krefft (1874).
  10. ^ "The number of aborigines is rapidly decreasing. In my whole ride, with the exception of some boys brought up in the houses, I saw only one other party; these were rather more numerous than the first, and not so well clothed. This decrease, no doubt, must be partly owing to the introduction of spirits, to European diseases (even the milder ones of which, as the measles, prove very destructive), and to the gradual extinction of the wild animals. It is said that numbers of their children invariably perish in very early infancy from the effects of their wandering life. As the difficulty of procuring food increases, so must their wandering habits; and hence the population, without any apparent deaths from famine, is repressed in a manner extremely sudden compared to what happens in civilized countries, where the father may add to his labour, without destroying his offspring": Charles Darwin's 16 January 1836 observations, recorded during his visit to the Blue Mountains (at Darwin (1839), pp. 519–520).
  11. ^ Wilson did not mince his words:
    "This country has been shamelessly stolen from the blacks.... In less than 20 years, we have nearly swept them off the face of the earth. We have shot them down like dogs ... and consigned whole tribes to the agonies of an excruciating death. We have made them drunkards and infected them with disease, which has rotted the bones of their adults, and made few children as exist amongst them a sorrow and a torture from their very instant of birth. We have made them outcasts on their own land, and are rapidly consigning them to entire annihilation." (Wilson, 1856a; for a more-readable text see Wilson, 1856b).
  12. ^ George Bennett — later, Secretary/Curator of the Australian Museum (1835–1841) and trustee until his resignation in 1874 in protest at the treatment of Krefft — who, following his visit to the Australian Museum in 1832, observed, in relation to its current collection of native flora and fauna, that:
    "Native weapons, utensils, and other specimens of the arts, as existing among the Aborigines, as well as the skulls of the different tribes, and accurate drawings of their peculiar cast of features would be a valuable addition [to its collection]. At the present time [viz. 1834], such might be procured without much difficulty; but it is equally certain, as well as much to be regretted, that the tribes in the settled parts of the colony are fast decreasing, and many, if not all, will, at no distant period, be known just by name. Here, in a public museum, the remains of the arts, & c. as existing among them, may be preserved as lasting memorials of the former races inhabiting the lands, when they had ceased to exist." (Bennett, 1834, p. 69).
  13. ^ For instance, in 1856 (p.358) Krefft noted that "the Aboriginal population of Victoria in 1847 amounted to about 5000; in 1858, shortly after these notes had been taken, their number had been reduced to 1768, men, women, and children; and if they have decreased at the same rate to the present day there will scarcely be a thousand souls left".
  14. ^ In 1871, as part (p. 7) of the "Dog-headed Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger" section of his Mammals of Australia, Krefft (now a museum curator) emphasized the urgency: "The products of a new country should be secured as early as possible, and every object bearing upon the manners and habits, the arts and manufactures of a primitive race, should be gathered and deposited in some public Institution before it is too late."