J.W. Helfer’s Botanical Collections from 19th Century SE Asia

My first semester research project was on a forgotten herbarium collection c. 1800's of the Czech naturalist, Jan Vilém Helfer, that were found in the basement at the Munich Herbarium. When I first began the project, I had no idea that within a short time, I would be learning about adventures down the Euphrates river, WWII and Nazi Germany, or a murder mystery in SE Asia. Everything starting from his name was interesting. In the literature, Jan Vilém Helfer is also known as John William Helfer and Johann Wilhelm Helfer, and could be referred to as Austrian, Austro-Hungarian, or as Czech. Not only was he a natural historian, but he was also an avid bird, beetle, and plant collector, as well as a trained doctor. He explored the Middle East and Indo-China with his wife, Pauline des Granges, from 1835 until his death at the hands of Andaman natives in 1840. His wife, Pauline des Granges, accompanied him during his travels, and published an account of their voyages in 1878 after Jan’s death under her new surname, Nostitz. 

My task was to unpack the collections, then to identify, label, and organize them. This also included tracking down how the collections came to Munich, where else they ended up, and where exactly they all came from. I got to read newspapers from 18th century Calcutta, letters from WWI and WWII era Germany and Czech Republic, and feel connected to times and places I would have never been able to imagine before.

The most important thing I learned from this project, was just how crucial labeling, organization, and keeping a good journal are. As Jan was killed before he was able to organize his collections and notebooks, most of the specimens I worked with were either without labels or with three different kinds of labels attached during unknown times by unknown sources. You can see a few examples of the different labels I found below.

Much of my project was, consequently, spent creating labels and doing the background work to get the specimens ready for future study without the need for reading 100 year-old German letters. Check out two "before and after" specimens below.

Project Publication

Wolcott and Renner 2017. Jan Vilém Helfer's (1810–1840) collections from India, the Andaman Archipelago and Burma. Archives of Natural History 44(2): 292-302.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2017.0450.