Person
Holtze, Maurice William (1840 - 1923)
ISO FLS
- Born
- 8 July 1840
Hanover, Germany - Died
- 12 October 1923
Kangaroo Island, South Australia, Australia - Occupation
- Botanic gardens director and Botanist
Summary
Maurice Holtze was Government Gardener of the Palmerston (later Darwin) Botanic Gardens 1878-1891 and Director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden 1891-1917. He trained in botany and horticulture in St Petersburg, Russia, and worked for a number of years in Europe before migrating to Australia with his family and settling in Palmerston (now Darwin) in the Northern Territory of South Australia. On appointment as Government Gardener in 1878 Holtze designed the Garden drawing on his European experience, although few of his planting survived later cyclones. With his son Nicholas, Holtze continued the work of William Hayes in trialling agricultural crops including sesame, opium, tapioca, arrowroot, bananas, cotton, jute and rice. During his time in the Northern Territory, Holtze collected many plant specimens which he sent to Ferdinand von Mueller in Melbourne, where they remain in the National Herbarium of Victoria. In 1891 Holtze was appointed Director of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens where, despite having fewer resources than his predecessor, he redesigned much of the Garden, developed a considerable collection of aquatic plants, and established a "type orchard" in the Mount Lofty Ranges with over 2000 varieties of apple and pear. The genus Holtzea (Fabaceae) was named in his honour.
Details
Chronology
- 1872
- Life event - Migrated to Australia with family
- 1872 - 1878
- Career position - Gaol warder, Palmerston, Northern Territory of South Australia
- 1878 - 1891
- Career position - Government Gardener, Palmerston, Northern Territory of South Australia
- 1888 - 1891
- Career position - Forester for the Northern Territory
- 1889 - 1923
- Career position - Fellow, Linnean Society of London (FLS)
- 1891 - 1917
- Career position - Director, Adelaide Botanic Gardens
- 1913
- Award - Imperial Service Order (ISO)
Related entries
Children
Archival resources
State Records of South Australia
- Maurice William Holtze - Records, c. 1891 - 1917, 111/A1; State Records of South Australia. Details
- Maurice William Holtze - Records, c. 1891 - 1917, 112/A1; State Records of South Australia. Details
- Maurice William Holtze - Records, c. 1891 - 1917, 1047/125; State Records of South Australia. Details
Published resources
Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions
- McCarthy, Gavan; Smith, Ailie; Moje, Christine; Rigby, Rebecca, The Study of Australian Eucalypts, eScholarship Research Centre, 2013, http://www.eoas.info/eucalypts/index.html. Details
Books
- Bisa, Deborah, Remember me kindly: a history of the Holtze family in the Northern Territory (Casuarina, N.T.: Historical Society of the Northern Territory, 2016), 421 pp. Details
- Ruediger, Wynnis J., The Holtze saga (Morgan, South Australia: The author, 1988). Details
Book Sections
- Kraehenbuel, Darrell N., 'Holtze, Maurice William (1840-1923), Botanist' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds, vol. 9 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 353-354. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090353b.htm. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q6793541. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/28720157. Details
- 'Holtze, Maurice William (1840-1923)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1469018. Details
Gavan McCarthy [P004098] and Helen Cohn
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 6 October 2023
- Foundation Supporter - Committee to Review Australian Studies in Tertiary Education