Carl Linnaeus by Rayshawn

Do you know what it is like to bear the weight of having to name, or classify, all the living things in the world is like? Carl Linnaeus, has felt this weight and shown how it is possible to do it, and he taught the world how to continue his work, which is why he is known as the father of classification, or taxonomy.

Carl Linnaeus was born May 23, 1707, in Stenbrohult, Sweden in the province of Samaland. His father Nils Ingemarsson was both a gardener and a pastor. Nils brought Carl to his garden, which started his urge to study plants and become and botanist, which was important later in his life because it influenced his Carl’s passion for names started when Carl repeatedly asked for the names of plants, and Nils told him that he would not tell Carl the names for him to forget again. He was so passionate about names that by the time he was old enough to go to college, he knew every plant in his home province. Until then, When Carl first went to a university,he chose Lund university, than he switched to Uppsala university because they didn’t teach botany at Lund in 1728. At the time, it was the most prestigious school in Sweden. The problem with that was that Carl’s father only gave him enough money for the trip to Uppsala, which led to money problems later on. The only classes he liked were logic and physics.

The following spring, he met somebody very much like him. Peter Artedi, a boy who had also disappointed his parents with not wanting to be a ministry person, became friends with Carl. They decided to work together to classify the entire living kingdom. While Peter classified mammals, amphibians, and reptiles, Carl classified birds and insects, and plants. Carl than took a trip to Lapland, which is in Sweden, Norway, and Finland, to collect things. By the time he was done, he had about 1000’s of insects, rare plants, 30 types of birds, and 3000 herbs.

In 1739 he married Sara Lisa Moraea, and 2 years later he became a professor at Uppsala University. He was granted Swedish Nobility and was knighted in 1758. He was fond of parrots and monkeys. Sometimes, whenever he was running let for lunch, his parrot would say, “12:00 Mr Carl!” Also, the parrot would answer the door for people coming to Carl’s house. Many times, the person would then come in and find nobody there! He then died in 1778, after a stroke in 1774.

Now you know about Carl Linnaeus, and why he was so important that some said “God created, Linnaeus classified.”