Ferdinand Deppe

Ferdinand Deppe is a painter, a Naturaliste and an exploring German, born in 1794 and died in 1861.

He is the young brother of Wilhelm Deppe, accountant within the natural history museum of zoology of Berlin. He works as gardener for the royal gardens. It is the director of the zoological museum, Hinrich Lichtenstein (1780-1857), which recommends it the Deppe young person to the count Von Sack, chamberlain of king de Prusse, which learning the opening from Mexico to the foreign visitors, wanted to lead a forwarding to it. Deppe is formed then with the preparation and the conservation of the Oiseau X and the Mammifère S, technique where he excels soon. He also studies the Botanique, the Zoologie and the geography of the American continent, he also learns the drawing and painting as well as English and Spanish. The count hesitates during three years to undertake his voyage, it is probably under the pressure of Deppe that it ends up deciding. The two men, accompanied by the servant by the count, arrive at London the August 23rd 1824. Deppe visits the British Museum and considers the part zoological lower than the natural history museum of Berlin, as well as the exposure of William Bullock (v. 1773-1849) and the shop of Benjamin Leadbeater (1760-1837) where it can observe his first Mexican birds.

The small troop leaves England the October 8th on board a boat bound for the Barbados. It arrives at Alvarado, Veracruz, mid-December 1824. Little time after, the servant of the count dies of the Yellow fever. As from this moment, the correspondence and the newspaper of Deppe do not make any more any mention of the count who leaves the country with the autumn 1825 and dies in Berlin three years later. Deppe then achieved only a voyage through Mexico of almost three years, joined during the last part of its tour by the son of William Bullock. Deppe carries out the first scientific harvests of birds of Mexico and gathers a collection of 958 skins representing 315 species as well as very many specimens of Reptile S, Amphibien S, Poisson S, Mollusque S and thousands of Insecte S, without counting very many plants. All its specimens are acquired by the natural history museum of Berlin.

But, not having any hope to obtain a station in one of the scientific institutions of Berlin, Deppe decides to return to Mexico, in company of his/her friend and botanist Christian Julius Wilhelm Schiede (1798-1836). They hope to be able to live sale of the specimens to natural history musea or tradesmen of natural history. They settle in July 1828 with Jalapa and carry out many forwardings in the vicinity. But soon the two men owe déchanter, H. Lichtenstein cannot acquire at reasonable prices the material gathered. Even with their other customers like natural history musea of Berlin or Vienna, they are found at the edge of the bankruptcy. Wilhelm Deppe then makes appear in Berlin classifieds where it puts specimens of natural history on sale coming from Mexico. But nothing made there, Deppe and Schiede must give up their companies. Deppe works then for tradesmen of Acapulco and Monterey and travels for them through the country. Finding itself again in greatest misery, it must return to Germany in 1836 with a rich person collection not only of Mexico but also of California and Hawaii. But it is again unable to find the least use in relation to its competences and it dies in misery.

Its ornithological specimens are not described by Hinrich Lichtenstein, which is often satisfied to give them a name without worrying about the foreign sources. They are other scientists, visiting the natural history museum of Berlin, who will study these species: William Swainson (1789-1855), Johann Georg Wagler (1800-1832), Charles Lucien Bonaparte (1803-1857), John Gould (1804-1881), Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (1823-1889), Hermann Schlegel (1804-1884) and Philip Lutley Sclater (1829-1913). But it is ultimately Jean Louis Cabanis (1816-1906) which, succeeding H. Lichtenstein in 1857 will ensure largest leaves the determinations.

Source

Erwin Stresemann (1954). Ferdinand Deep' S travels in Mexico City, 1824-1829, The Condor , 56: 86-92.

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