Sonder, Otto Wilhelm   (1812 - 1881)

Born on 18 June 1812 in Bad Oldesloe, Duchy of Holstein; died on 21 November 1881 (aged 69) in Hamburg, Germany.

He qualified as an apothecary in Berlin in 1835.

For more than 30 years Sonder was the proprietor of a leading pharmaceutical establishment in Hamburg and for a similar length of time was a member of the medical board.

Sonder's 'zeal', ability, and great working power allowed him to carry on independent progressive work in his favourite science – that of botany – irrespective of his extensive professional engagements.

Sonder's publications included an enumeration of the Epacridaceae, Stylidiacee and the algae in Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae, descriptions of many families in Flora Capensis, which he co-edited with W. H. Harvey, and a flora of Hamburg. He was also editor, and author of many families, of Plantae Muellerianae, published in several volumes of Linnaea.

He had an enormous, private herbarium which was available for purchase during his own lifetime.

The bulk of the herbarium was purchased by the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL) but its acquisition was a prolonged affair.

The first available record relating to the purchase of Sonder's herbarium appears in a memorandum from Ferdinand Mueller to the Chief Secretary of Victoria. It is dated 1 November 1859. In it Mueller stated that he would respond to the government's request that he assist George Bentham in the proposed Australian flora, but added:

"But I feel it my duty to inform your Honour that this proposed labour could be greatly facilitated if I could in addition to my own since the last 20 years accumulated collections (now all property of the Government) secure the great Sonderian Herbarium, which is the richest of all private botanical collections in existence."

Source: Extracted from:
Short, P. S. (1990). "Politics and the purchase of private herbaria by the National Herbarium of Victoria", in Short, P. S. (ed.), History of systematic botany in Australia, ASBS. p.6. ASBS. p.7-9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Wilhelm_Sonder
Portrait Photo: 1863, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Steetz.