Item 0008 - Letter, 2 May 1876

Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther was born on October 3, 1830, in Esslingen, Germany.

He was a German-born British zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. Günther is ranked the second-most productive reptile taxonomist with more than 340 reptile species described. He graduated from the University of Tübingen in 1858 with a degree in medicine and the same year he published a handbook of zoology for students of medicine. In 1855, he met Prof. Richard Owen at the British Museum which led to an offer to work at the British Museum in 1857. In 1875, he was appointed Keeper of Zoology at the Natural History Museum, a position he held until 1895. The major work of his life was the eight-volume “Catalogue of Fishes” (1859–1870). He also worked on the reptiles and amphibians in the museum collection. In 1864, he founded the Record of Zoological Literature and served as its editor for six years. He was also one of the editors for the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for more than thirty years. In 1867, Günther was elected fellow of the Royal Society and was its vice-president (1875–1876). He served on the council of the Zoological Society (1868–1905). He was elected a fellow of the Linnaean Society in 1877 and served as its president (1896–1900). He became a naturalized British citizen in 1874.

In 1868, he married Roberta Mitchell McIntosh (1842–1869) and in 1879, he remarried Theodora Dowrish Drake (1863–1944). He died on February 1, 1914, in Kew Gardens, Surrey, England.