Abstract
Emil Holub was a nineteenth century, Austro-Hungarian Czech, medical doctor with wide-ranging interests in ethnography and the natural sciences. During visits to southern Africa in the 1870s, he meticulously recorded everything that he encountered. Amongst his vast collection of artifacts, natural history specimens and notes were several sketches of fungi. These illustrations are reproduced here to document this valuable historical knowledge, tentatively identifying them in the context of the habitats through which Holub travelled.
Highlights
The late 19th century era saw many adventurers visiting Africa in search of ethnological or natural history curiosities
Some of Holub’s fungi collections appear to have been sent to Germany, because discovered amongst them was a new species that was named Broomeia ellipso spora Höhn. 1905. It is unknown when or where Holub collected this particular specimen, but the species has since been found in both South Africa and Zimbabwe
Emil Holub’s mushroom drawings constitute a valuable collection of natural history records. They give us insight into the finer details of the ecosystems through which he passed in the nineteenth century
Summary
The late 19th century era saw many adventurers visiting Africa in search of ethnological or natural history curiosities. He was born on 7 October 1847 in Holice (Holitz), eastern Bohemia, in what is the Czech Republic. As a youngster he exhibited a remarkable passion for natural history, geography and archaeology, and was an avid reader of many of the leading travelogues of that period. As a result of the writings of David Livingstone, Holub became obsessed with the African continent, and it was his avowed ambition to follow in Livingstone’s footsteps. To this end, he explored southern Africa twice: most extensively in 1872–1879 and again from 1883 to 1887 (Burrett & Olša jr 2006; Burrett 2006)
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