Frederik Christian Raben

Frederik Christian Raben (23 March 1769 – 6 July 1838) was a Danish count, traveller and amateur naturalist. He owned Aalholm Castle on Lolland as well as the Lindencrone Mansion in Copenhagen.

Frederik Christian Raben
Bust of Frederik Christian Raben in the garden of Ålholm Estate
Memorial for Frederik Christian Raben, erected by his son Gregers Christian Raben

Early life

Frederik Christian Raben was born at Aalholm Castle in 1769 as the son of Otto Ludvig Raben, 2nd Count of Christiansholm. He graduated in law from the University of Copenhagen in 1788 and inherited the family estate when he was 21 years old.

Travels

F. C. Raben was the owner of the estate Christiansholm (now "Ålholm") on Lolland and amateur botanist. He travelled in Europe and, unusual for his time, to Greenland[1] and Brazil (1835-1838). He collected many plant specimens during his journey to Brazil. More than 1100 of his herbarium specimens now belong to the Botanical Museum at the University of Copenhagen.[2]

Raben's great auk

Raben brought a specimen of the now extinct great auk back from Iceland in 1821. In 1968, a descendant of his, Baron Raben-Levetzau to Ålholm, put it on auction at Sotheby's in London. The highest bid - £ 9,000 - was given by Finnur Gudmunsson, then director of the Icelandic Natural History Museum. This is the highest price ever paid for a zoological specimen.

Legacy

A number of plant species have been named in his honour, particularly based on his own Brazilian collections, e.g. Miconia rabenii (Melastomaceae), Eleocharis rabenii (Cyperaceae) and Campomanesia rabeniana (Myrtaceae).

The Families Raben og Raben-Levezau of Ålholm

References
  1. Anonymous (F.C. Raben) (1826). "Udtog af en dagbog, holdet paa en rejse i Grønland i sommeren 1823" [Excerpt of the diary from a travel to Greenland in the summer of 1823]. Tidsskrift for Naturvidenskaberne (Copenhagen) (in Danish). 3: 271–289.
  2. Ryding, O. (2002). "Count F.C. Raben's Brazilian herbaria". Taxon. 51 (2): 369–376. doi:10.2307/1554935. JSTOR 1554935.
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