Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish scientist, who was a botanist, physician, and zoologist. Born May 23^rd 1707 in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden he studied in Uppsala University. Later, in 1730 he began to give lectures there. Throughout the years of 1735 to 1738 he lived abroad where he published Systema Naturae in Holland, on his return to Sweden he went back to his old university and became a professor of botany.

Carl Linnaeus is known as the father of taxonomy because:

1.    Linnaeus classified organisms according to similarities in structure - logical today, but unusual then.

2.    He began giving living things two-part scientific names based on Latin. The term for this is binomial nomenclature. The first name is the genus; the second is the species.

3.    He started the seven levels of classification: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. He also named countless species.

Linnaeus had a plan to travel to travel Lapland. He hoped to find new plants, animals and hopefully valuable minerals. He was also very curious of the customs of the native Sami people who occupied Scandinavia's vast tundra’s. He began his expedition on 22 May; he travelled on foot and horse and it took him 11 days to reach his first destination, Umeå. He sometimes stop along the way; dismounting on to examine a flower or rock. He was particularly interested in mosses and lichens, the latter a main part of the diet of the reindeer which is a common animal in Lapland. Carl returned to Sweden on 28th June 1738 and went to Falun where he entered into an engagement to Sara Elisabeth Moræa. Three months later he moved to Stockholm to find employment as a physician so he can support a family.

1716 Attends Latin school in nearby cathedral city of Växjö.

1727 George II ascends to the throne.

1727 Begins medical studies at the University of Lund.

1728 Transfers to University of Uppsala, where he attracts the interest of Olof Celsius, a theology professor who was interested in the plants of Sweden.

1730 Appointed Lecturer in Botany at the University of Uppsala.

1732 Travels to Lapland on a grant from the university.

1735 Becomes engaged to Sara Moraea.

1735 Publishes first edition of Systema naturae.

1736 Travels from the Netherlands to England where he meets Sir Hans Sloane, President of the Royal Society and Philip Miller.

1738 Linnaeus establishes a medical practice in Stockholm. Publishes Classes plantarum.

1739 Marries Sara Moraea. Appointed physician to the Admiralty and also first President of the newly-established Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences.

1741 Linnaeus becomes Professor of Practical Medicine at Uppsala University. First son, Carl, born in January.

1745 Publishes Flora Suecica.

1746 Publishes Fauna Suecica.

1747 Appointed court physician.

1749 Writes the thesis Specimen academicum de oeconomia that identifies ecology as a distinct area of investigation.

1750 Start of the Industrial Revolution.

1751 Publishes Philosophia botanica.

1753 Publishes Species planturum,  the starting point of modern botanical nomenclature.

1761 Linnaeus is ennobled.

1762 Linnaeus adopts the title Carl von Linné.

1774 Linnaeus suffers a stroke that forces him to retire from teaching.

1776 Linnaeus suffers a further stroke.