Pehr Kalm

Pehr (Pietari) Kalm (March 6th 1716 - November 16th 1779) is a explorer and a Botaniste born in Sweden of Finnish parents. Kalm is famous to have the first described the falls of the Niagara and to have provided the first detailed study of natural history of the North America.

Biography

Wire of Pasteur Lutheran, Kalm grows in Finland. It begins its studies with the academy from Åbo towards Turku and continues them, to leave 1735 to the university Uppsala. Starting from 1740, it follows the courses of Carl von Linné.

In 1746, Kalm becomes professor attending of Natural history and economy the Académie of Åbo, station which it occupies with full-time starting from 1747.

The royal Academy of sciences of Sweden, chooses it to go on a journey in America de Nord in order to bring back to it all new seeds and plants which could appear useful for agriculture and industry. Kalm has particularly the responsibility of collect feet of red Mûrier ( Morus will rubra ) in order to allow the development of the production of Soie in Sweden.

Kalm arrives in Pennsylvania in 1748 and installs its base camp in the finno-Swedish community installed in the south of the New Jersey. It officiates there like Pasteur and there Marie in 1750. He travels until the falls of the Niagara and with the north of the Quebec before turning over to Sweden in 1751. He finds his post of professor, function which he occupies until his death.

He founds a Botanical garden with Turku (Finland).

The newspaper of voyage of Kalm, In Resa til Norra America (Stockholm) appears between 1753 and 1761 and is translated into English in 1770 under the title of Travels into North America .

Linné, in its Species Plantarum , quotes 90 species of plants brought back by Kalm, of which 60 are new for science.

Random links: