Anders Dahl (1751–1789) – Demonstrator in Botany at old Åbo Akademi

Authors

• Henry Väre

Abstract

Dahl was the second Demonstrator in Botany (1786–1789) at Åbo Akademi. He died soon after arriving to Åbo (Turku), and his career here is poorly known. The main duty of demonstrators were to instruct medical students on the subject of medicinal plants. Dahl sent to Åbo a considerable herbarium prior to his arrival. It included 6000 specimens, of which about 1000 had once belonged to Herbarium Linnaeanum, but donated to Claes Alströmer, Dahls employer at Alingsås, Christinedahl, Västra Götaland in Sweden. That herbarium, like all collections at Åbo, were almost completely burn in 1827 in the Great Fire of Åbo. The number of exsisting specimens in Herbarium Dahlianum at University of Helsinki, Botanical Museum is 215. It includes specimens once owned by e.g. Pehr Kalm, Carl von Linné the Elder and Younger, Peter Simon Pallas, Carl Peter Thunberg and Martin Vahl.