29 Facts About George Engelmann

George Engelmann, known as Georg Engelmann, was a German-American botanist.

George Engelmann was instrumental in describing the flora of the west of North America, then very poorly known to Europeans; 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.

George Engelmann's 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.

George Engelmann established a school for young women in Frankfurt, which was rare at the time.

George Engelmann's cousin, Adolph Engelmann, was a colonel during the Mexican-American War and the American Civil War.

George Engelmann received his early education at the gymnasium in Frankfurt.

George Engelmann voluntarily devoted much of his time after school duties to studying history, modern languages, and drawing.

George Engelmann thereupon left Heidelberg and entered the University of Berlin, where he stayed for two years.

In 1832 George Engelmann went to Paris, where he again became associated with Braun, and with Louis Agassiz.

George Engelmann then went to St Louis, Missouri, and from there around to the adjacent states.

George Engelmann settled with his relatives and the lawyer Gustav Koerner on a farm in St Clair County, Illinois near Belleville for three years.

George Engelmann often suffered sickness and hardship upon those journeys, but he persevered until he finished all the business he had planned to do.

George Engelmann made much use of his scientific, as well as practical, knowledge in the prosecution of that business, doing mineralogical and geological work, but only the botanical notes which he then made were used in his subsequent scientific career.

At that time St Louis was little more than a frontier trading post, but George Engelmann had strong faith in its future greatness, and he lived to see it become one of the chief cities of the United States.

George Engelmann devoted himself to his medical practice, but in his later years made a specialty of botany.

George Engelmann took several vacations from his medical practice and devoted them all to the gathering of data for his scientific work, the details of which were elaborated at his home.

George Engelmann made special studies of the pines, rushes, spurges, and other little-known and difficult groups, contributing numerous articles on them to the St Louis Academy of Sciences, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and to government reports.

George Engelmann was one of the earliest to study the North American vines, and nearly all that is known scientifically of the American species and forms is due to his investigations.

George Engelmann was a founder and longtime president of the St Louis Academy of Sciences, and encouraged the wealthy St Louis businessman Henry Shaw to develop his gardens to be of scientific as well as public use; "Shaw's Gardens" became the Missouri Botanical Garden.

George Engelmann was one of the original founders of the National Academy of Sciences.

In 1861, George Engelmann had published a pioneering paper in the United States examining plant diseases.

For example, George Engelmann played an important, but little known role in rescuing the French wine industry.

George Engelmann verified that certain living American species had resisted Phylloxera for nearly 40 years.

George Engelmann arranged to have millions of shoots and seeds collected and sent to France, where the species proved to be very successful in providing rootstock.

George Engelmann was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1862.

George Engelmann turned to plants, seeking relief in study, but life and a continuance of its labors seemed to be almost hopeless.

George Engelmann's shattered spirit was much revived and, among his friends, he resumed and sustained his lifelong habit of cheerfulness of manner.

George Engelmann is commemorated in the names of several plants, including Engelmann Oak, Engelmann Spruce, Apache Pine, Engelmann's quillwort or Appalachian quillwort, and Engelmann's Prickly-pear.