Theodor Kleinschmidt

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Theodor Kleinschmidt (6 March 1834, Wolfhagen – 10 April 1881, Utuaia, Bismarck Archipelago) was a German trader, explorer and naturalist.

Kleinschmidt studied commerce and went to the United States of America in 1843. He launched out in business in Saint Louis (Missouri) but went bankrupt and had to leave for Australia then on to Fiji to flee his creditors. But his trade with the natives was not brilliant, in particular because of the economic crisis of 1874. The Museum Godeffroy of Hamburg then offered a new opportunity to him. The institution charged him with collecting natural history specimens, fauna and flora, in the Solomon Islands and New Hebrides, territories largely unexplored hitherto. He was assassinated by natives in 1881. He was the uncle of the priest and ornithologist Otto Kleinschmidt (1870–1954).

The Pink-billed Parrotfinch Erythrura kleinschmidti was named in his honour by Otto Finsch.

Literature

Walther Killy (Hersg.): Enzyklopädie der Biographien. Saur Verlag, München, 2000

Authority control	VIAF: 80470524 GND: 136062687

Persondata
Name	Kleinschmidt, Theodor
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1834
Place of birth	Wolfhagen
Date of death	1881
Place of death

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