author
Adolf Bernhard Meyer
1840–1911
A wide-ranging 19th-century naturalist, he moved easily between anthropology, zoology, and museum work. His travels in the Malay Archipelago and long leadership in Dresden helped shape how specimens and cultures were collected, studied, and displayed.
1 Audiobook
Säugethiere vom Celebes- und Philippinen-Archipel
by Adolf Bernhard Meyer
About the author
Born in Hamburg on October 11, 1840, Adolf Bernhard Meyer trained in medicine and the natural sciences before building a career that crossed several fields. He became known as an anthropologist, ornithologist, entomologist, and herpetologist, with a special gift for careful observation and classification.
His fieldwork took him to the Malay Archipelago, where he gathered material that informed both his scientific writing and museum collections. Meyer later spent nearly thirty years as director of the Royal Zoological and Anthropological-Ethnographical Museum in Dresden, where he helped expand its scientific and ethnographic holdings.
Remembered today as both a researcher and a museum leader, he belonged to a generation of scholars who combined travel, collecting, and publication in a single career. He died in 1911, leaving behind work that linked natural history, anthropology, and the history of museums.