Ignaz von Olfers

Ignaz von Olfers.

Ignaz Franz Werner Maria von Olfers (30 August 1793 – 23 April 1871) was a German naturalist, historian and diplomat. Olfers was born in Münster. In 1816 he travelled to Brazil as a diplomat.

In 1839 he was made director of the royal art collections and had significant influence on Frederick William IV of Prussia for a re-development of the Museumsinsel, Berlin. Together with architect Friedrich August Stueler he developed the concept of the Neues Museum, Berlin and had great influence on organisation and presentation of exhibits and interior.

Olfers described a number of new mammal species in Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege's Journal von Brasilien (1818).^[1][2]

A species of South American snake, Philodryas olfersii, is named in his honor.^[3]

References

1. Burwick, Roswitha (1994). "From Aesthetic Teas to the World of Noble Reformers: The Berlin Salonière (1780 to 1848)". Pacific Coast Philology. 29: 129–142. JSTOR 1316470.
2. van Wezel, Elsa (1 January 2001). "Die Konzeptionen des Alten und Neuen Museums zu Berlin und das sich wandelnde historische Bewusstsein". Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen (in German). 43: 3–244. doi:10.2307/4129998. JSTOR 4129998.
3. Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Olfers", p. 194).