Scope and Content
The Klatt collection contains notebooks, loose notes, and manuscript material, primarily consisting of plant descriptions in Latin.
Dates
- Creation: 1864-1896
Creator
- Klatt, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1825-1897 (Person)
Conditions Governing Use
The collection is available by appointment for research. Researchers must register and provide valid photo identification. Please contact botref@oeb.harvard.edu for additional information.
Extent
0.2 linear feet (7 folders)Biography
Friedrich Wilhelm Klatt was born on February 13, 1825, in Hamburg, Germany. He intended to become an artist but gave up that ambition after the paintings he had prepared for an art exhibition were destroyed in a fire in 1842. He instead turned to education and took over administration of a private boys school with his brother. He taught there until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870.
Klatt was married in 1856. Around the same time, he became acquainted with Johann Georg Christian Lehmann, founder of the Hamburg Botanical Garden. Lehmann encouraged Klatt in his botanical studies and tasked him with organizing his personal herbarium.
Klatt was awarded an honorary doctorate and offered a professorship at the University of Rostock in 1864 but declined the position, likely so he could remain in Hamburg.
In the years following the Franco-Prussian War, Klatt continued teaching natural sciences at schools around Hamburg. His wife died in 1894 and Klatt suffered a heart attack and died on March 3, 1897.
Sources
Schinz H. 1897. Friedrich Wilhelm Klatt. Bull. Herb. Boissier. 5:836-839.
Provenance
The provenance of this collection is unknown. A label on one of the notebooks indicates that it was purchased.
Processing Information
Processed by Lynn McWhood, January 1982
Creator
- Klatt, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1825-1897 (Person)
- Title
- Klatt, Frederich Wilhelm, 1825-1897. Frederich Wilhelm Klatt plant descriptions, 1864-1896: A Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Botany Libraries, Gray Herbarium Library, Harvard University.
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- gra00038
Repository Details
Part of the Botany Libraries, Gray Herbarium Library, Harvard University Repository
The Harvard University Herbaria houses five research libraries that are managed collectively as the Botany Libraries. The Gray Herbarium Library specializes in the identification and classification of New World plants with emphasis on North American plants. The Archives of the Gray Herbarium houses unique resources including personal papers, institutional records, field notes and plant lists, expedition records, photographs, original artwork, and objects from faculty, curators, staff, and affiliates of the Gray Herbarium.
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