Sharing what he saw: An appreciation of Gunnar Erdtman’s life and illustrations

Abstract

Gunnar Erdtman is known for his founding contributions to pollen analysis and morphology, and for his richly illustrated books. The palynogram illustrations he devised, which include multiple perspectives and transects of pollen’s surface and internal structures, helped to bring order to a subject of overflowing complexity. This article explores Erdtman’s visual skills and the influences of both nature and nurture on his work – investigating his development as an articulate observer, his eventual focus on pollen structure and his sustained career outside of Swedish academia.

Keywords:

• scientific illustration
• science history
• history of palynology

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Fulbright Scholar Programme of the US Department of State. I wish to thank current and former staff of the Palynological Laboratory at Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet in Stockholm, Sweden, especially Pia Östensson, Elisabeth Grafström, Kerstin Alm Kübler and Agneta Ekbom. Maria Asp and Anne Miche de Malleray at the Kungliga Vetenskapsakademiens Centre for History of Science, Stockholm, Sweden, were a great help to me. Thank you also to Julia Buckley and Lisbeth Gale at the herbarium, Library, Art and Archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, Andrea Hart at the Library, Art and Archives of the British Museum of Natural History, London, UK, Gunilla Eklund at the library of Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, and Per Larsson at Nordiska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden. Although I did not quote from each, I am grateful for the kind interviews and correspondence shared with: Arne Anderberg, Björn E. Berglund, Stephen Blackmore, Bill Chaloner, Thomas Denk, Keith Ferguson, Else Marie Friis, Madeleine Harley, Inga Hedberg, Emma Hultén, Suzy Huysmans, Lars Erik Kers, Erik Kjellgren, Jens Klackenberg, Bertil Nordenstam, Kaj Raunsgaard Pedersen, Wim Punt, Joanne Rowley, James Riding, John Skvarla, Lennart Stenberg, Rosalind Srivastava, Michael J. Tooley, Al Traverse, Pollyanna von Knorring and Alfred, Anne and Edmond Wodehouse. This work was presented at the Linnaean Society of London, Annual Palynology Specialist Group Meeting, October 2012, where it was strengthened by attendee questions and comments.

Gunnar Erdtman’s collection of scholarly reprints, his laboratory drawings and notes, as well as laboratory guest books and photograph albums, several framed art pieces, and a bronze bust of Erdtman are all held on the shelves of the Palynological Laboratory at Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet in Stockholm, Sweden. His incoming and outgoing letters, daybooks, childhood and university sketchpads and notebooks, teaching evaluations, matted artwork and newspaper clippings are held in boxes at the Centre for History of Science, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien, Stockholm, Sweden. John Rowley’s incoming and outgoing letters are currently in boxes in the attic of Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet. Several binders of Siwert Nilsson’s correspondence and collected newspaper clippings are held on the shelves of the Palynological Laboratory, Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet. Lars E. Kers of the Bergius Botanic Gardens, Stockholm, maintains an Erdtman file, containing newspaper clippings and letters written by Erdtman to scholars at the Bergius Gardens, from as early as 1921. Original artwork by Erdtman is in the personal collections of Joanne Rowley (Lidingö, Sweden) and Inga Hedberg (Uppsala, Sweden). An original of Erdtman’s (1942) school poster (Figure 6), from Fyra skogshistoriska tavlor, published by Svenska Skolmaterielförlaget, Stockholm, is held with two others, under file numbers 159–161, in Maps and Imaging, Uppsala Universitetsbibliotek, Uppsala. Being no longer in business, the publisher could not be contacted for copyright permission. Similarly, Chronica Botanica, publisher of Erdtman’s 1943 book An Introduction to Pollen Analysis, is also not available for reprint permission. Erdtman’s 1952 book Pollen Morphology and Plant Taxonomy: Angiosperms, was transferred from Almqvist and Wiksell (now Liber) to Hafner Publishing (1972), and then to Brill (1986), but the rights to Figure 7F reproduced in this article remain with Gunnar Erdtman. I now hold at Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA, a digital photograph collection of Erdtman-related documents, as well as photographs of every sheet of Charles Frederick White’s more than 2000 pollen drawings, from eight folios at the Library, Art and Archives, Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, UK. I welcome requests to share any of these primary sources.