Wilhelm Philippe Schimper
{{Short description|Alsatian botanist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}}
Image:Wilhelm Philipp Schimper (1808–1880).jpg
Wilhelm Philippe Schimper (January 12, 1808 – March 20, 1880, in Lichtenberg) was an Alsatian botanist with French, later German citizenship.{{efn|Schimper acquired German citizenship in 1871.}} He was born in Dossenheim-sur-Zinsel, but spent his youth in Offwiller, a village at the foot of the Vosges mountain range in Alsace. He was the father of botanist Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper (1856–1901), and a cousin to naturalist Karl Friedrich Schimper (1803–1867) and botanist Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Schimper (1804–1878).
Life
Following graduation from the University of Strasbourg, he worked as a curator at the Natural History Museum in Strasbourg, becoming director of the museum in 1839. The museum has a bust of Schimper at the top of the stairs.
From 1862 until 1879, he was a professor of geology and natural history at the University of Strasbourg.
Schimper's contributions to biology were primarily in the specialized fields of bryology (study of mosses) and paleobotany (study of plant fossils). He spent considerable time collecting botanical specimens in his travels throughout Europe. Together with Jean-Baptiste Mougeot, Antoine Mougeot and Chrétien Géofroy Nestler he edited three exsiccatae, among them Stirpes cryptogamae Vogeso-Rhenanae; quas in Rheni superioris inferiorisque, nec non Vogesorum praefecturis collegerunt (1843-1854).Triebel, D. & Scholz, P. 2001–2025 IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae. – Botanische Staatssammlung München: http://indexs.botanischestaatssammlung.de. – München, Germany.{{cite web |title=Stirpes cryptogamae Vogeso-Rhenanae; quas in Rheni superioris inferiorisque, nec non Vogesorum praefecturis collegerunt: IndExs ExsiccataID=139396012 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=139396012 |access-date=18 April 2025}} Among his writings was the six-volume Bryologia Europaea, an epic work that was published between 1836 and 1855. It was co-written with Philipp Bruch (1781–1847), and it described every species of European moss known at the time.
Schimper also made significant contributions in geology. In 1874, he proposed a new scientific subdivision of geological time. He called the new epoch the "Paleocene Era", of which he based on paleobotanical findings from the Paris Basin.[http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gingeric/PDFfiles/PDG355_PalEocEurNAm.pdf GFF volume 122 (2000) pp.57–59] Paleocene/Eocene boundary and continental vertebrate faunas of Europe and North America
Honours
File:Wilhelm Philipp Schimper.JPG
Since 1854, he had been a Corresponding Member of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris. Schimper was elected as a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 1862.[https://www.leopoldina.org/mitglieder/mitgliederverzeichnis/mitglieder/member/Member/show/6438/ Mitgliederverzeichnis – Wilhelm Philipp Schimper], leopoldina.org
He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1866.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1866&year-max=1866&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-21|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} He became a Corresponding Member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in 1872.
A street bears his name in the Orangerie quarter of Strasbourg.
Writings
- "Bryologia europaea" (Stuttgart, 1836–55, six volumes).
- Monographie des plantes du fossiles grès bigarré de la chaine des Vosges, 1841 – Monograph on fossil plants from the variegated sandstone of the Vosges Mountains.
- Recherches sur les mousses anatomiques et morphologiques, 1850 – Research on the anatomy and morphology of mosses.
- Mémoire pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des Sphagnum, 1854 – Treatise on the natural history of sphagnum.
- "Synopsis muscorum europaeorum" (1860, second edition in 1876).
- Le terrain de transition des Vosges, 1862 – The changing terrain of Vosges.
- Traité de Paléontologie végétale (1869 to 1874 in two volumes) – Treatise on paleobotany.[http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Schimper,_Wilhelm_Philipp ADB:Schimper, Wilhelm Philipp] @ Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie[http://www.idref.fr/068773609 IDREF.fr] (bibliography)
{{Botanist|Schimp.|Schimper, Wilhelm Philippe}}
Notes
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References
- "This article incorporates text based on a translation of an equivalent article at the German Wikipedia".
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Category:19th-century French botanists
Category:University of Strasbourg alumni
Category:Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg
Category:Alsatian-German people
Category:19th-century German botanists
Category:Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
Category:Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Category:Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities