Louis Charles Christopher Krieger
Louis Charles Christopher Krieger (11 February, 1873 – 31 July, 1940) was an American mycologist and botanical illustrator.
Personal life
Born in Baltimore, Maryland on February 11, 1873, Krieger received his early education from the Lutheran schools in that city. He showed artistic talents at an early age, and at 13 enrolled in the Maryland Institute School of Art and Design. Krieger continued his studies at the Charcoal Club of Baltimore and the Schuler School of Fine Arts. He married Agnes Checkley Keighler in 1904; she died in 1939. They had one daughter.[1]
Career
At the age of 18, Krieger started employment as an artist assistant in the Division of Microscopy at the Department of Agriculture, and spent time painting mushrooms found around the District of Columbia area. When the Secretary of Agriculture, Julius Sterling Morton, closed the department in 1895, Krieger spent a year in Munich at the Royal Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. After returning to America in 1896, he became an instructor of drawing and painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art and Design. Although he developed a reputation as a portrait painter, Krieger did not particularly enjoy this employment, finding it dull.[1] In 1902, he started working as a botanical illustrator for mycologist William Gibson Farlow at Harvard University, a position that lasted for the next decade. During this time, he earnestly immersed himself in his work, painting several hundreds of images of mushrooms. He also started indexing the world's mycological literature, a project that continued for the next 30 years.[1]
In 1912, Krieger accepted a position at the United States Department of Agriculture, at the Plant Introduction Garden in Chico, California. Here, under the supervision of David Griffiths, he produced a series of images on species of the cactus family. He returned to illustrating mushrooms in 1918 when he returned to Baltimore to work for the noted gynecologist Howard A. Kelly. Over the following 10 years he published several scientific articles that appeared in Mycologia and other journals, including the May 1920 National Geographic, which featured 16 of his colored plates.[1] He also assisted Kelly in indexing his mycological library, which, with about 12,000 items and valued at $100,000, was considered one of the most extensive privately owned mycological libraries in the country.[2] Kelly donated his library and fungus collections to the University of Michigan, where, according to Kelly's wishes, it was named the "L.C.C. Krieger Mycological Library".[1]
Krieger was an artist with the Tropical Plant Research Foundation in Cuba from 1928–29, where he illustrated sugarcane diseases. He was then a mycologist with the New York State Museum, during which time he prepared the book A Popular Guide to the Higher Fungi (Mushrooms) of New York State, which was eventually published in 1935.[1]
Described taxa
Krieger described several species, varieties, and a form of agaric fungi in 1922 and 1927 publications.[4][5]
- Agaricus auricolor L.Krieg. (illegitimate homonym; now Psalliota auricolor Coker)
- Amanita brunnescens var. pallida L.Krieg.
- Amanita corticelli (Valenti) L.Krieg.
- Amanita crassifoliata L.Krieg.
- Amanita porphyria var. lavendula (Coker) L.Krieg.
- Cortinarius rubroclavus L.Krieg.
- Hygrophorus proximus L.Krieg.
- Mycena inconspicua L.Krieg.
- Pluteus leoninus var. oculatus L.Krieg.
- Stropharia aeruginosa var. exsquamosa L.Krieg.
- Tricholoma sejunctum var. friesii L.Krieg.
- Tricholoma sejunctum var. rubroscabrum L.Krieg.
- Schizophyllum commune f. stipitatum L.Krieg.
Selected publications
- Krieger LCC. (1911). "Note on the reputed poisonous properties of Coprinus comatus". Mycologia 3 (4): 200–2. doi:10.2307/3753087.
- Krieger LCC. (1914). "Observations on the use of Ridgway's new color-book. The color of the spores of Volvaria speciosa Fr.". Mycologia 6 (1): 29–31. doi:10.2307/3753552.
- Krieger LCC. (1920). "Common mushrooms of the United States". The National Geographic Magazine 37: 387–439.
- Krieger LCC. (1921). "Amanita pantherina edible or poisonous?". Mycologia 13 (4–5): 270–1.
- Krieger LCC. (1922). "A sketch of the history of mycological illustration (higher fungi)". Mycologia 14 (6): 311–31. doi:10.2307/3753080.
- Krieger LCC. (1923). "Preliminary note on the position of the hymenium in Physalacria inflata (Schw.) Peck.". Bulletin of the Maryland Academy of Sciences 3: 7–8.
- Krieger LCC. (1925). "Cortinarius cyanites in the United States". Rhodora 27 (321): 153–6.
- Krieger LCC. (1926). "Sketching fleshy fungi with the aid of the camera lucida". Mycologia 18 (3): 132–3. doi:10.2307/3753957.
- Krieger LCC. (1936). The Mushroom Handbook. New York: Macmillan.
- Krieger LCC. (1938–39). "Unpublished color plates of fungi by Lewis David von Schweinitz". Bartonia (20): 28–9.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Stevenson JA. (1941). "Louis Charles Christopher Krieger, 1872–1940". Mycologia 33 (3): 241–7. JSTOR 3754759.
- ↑ Kanouse BB. (1943). "Doctor Howard Atwood Kelly". Mycologia 35 (4): 383–4. JSTOR 3754590.
- ↑ "Author Query for 'L.Krieg.'". International Plant Names Index.
- ↑ Krieger LCC. (1922). "Schizophyllum commune with a stipe". Mycologia 14 (1): 47–8.
- ↑ Krieger LCC. (1927). "New or otherwise interesting Agaricaceae from the United States and Canada". Mycologia 19 (6): 308–14. doi:10.2307/3753822.