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Doctor Stierling (1 Viewer)

mb1848

mb1848

Well-known member
Inspired by the Picidae thread I looked up D. stierlingi . HBW Alive! key to scientific names in ornithology says: "stierlingi; Dr N. Stierling (fl. 1901) German Army in East Africa 1887-1901, naturalist, collector in Nyasaland/Malawi and German East Africa/Tanzania (Calamonastes, syn. Cinnyris venustus falkensteini, Dendropicos, subsp. Psophocichla litsitsirupa, subsp. Sylvia abyssinica, subsp. Zosterops senegalensis). "
I believe this person is Jan Gysbert F. L. Stierling M.D. He was an Oberstabsarzt which is a military rank for doctors in German speaking service. He collected ethnography things also and wrote an article Die Konigsgraber der Wahehe, Mittheilurtgen des Seminars fur Orientalischen Sprachen, 1899. He is listed in a German Colonial address book in 1925-27. I believe he is related to a German/Dutch doctor Gysbert Swartendyk Stierling 1787-1857. I am just not sure how??
 
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Good inititive Mark!

In my MS he´s almost all unknown (commemorated in Stierling's Wren-Warbler Calamonastes stierlingi REICHENOW 1901 formerly a k a "Stierlings calamonastes" in Swedish) ...

In my notes I only have him (in short) as:
"... the German Dr. (Stabsarzt) Stierling, collector in German East-Africa (Deutsch-Ostafrika), in about year 1900, according to some sources a k a N. Stierling".
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That´s about it. I didn´t dig any further as this bird today is zambezigärdsmygssångare in Swedish.

If you´re correct in following the trace of Oberstabsarzt Jan Gysbert F. L. (Friedrich Ludwig?) Stierling (M.D.) is unknown to me ...

However; good luck finding him! And ditto in connecting him to those birds.
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Thanks Björn, Friedrich Ludwig, supposedly. Dr. Stierling collected birds in Mongea and Iranga Tanzania /Deutsch Ost-afrika. (published 1901) Dr. Jan Stierling wrote about the Wahehe people who ruled the Iranga area. (published 1899) You cannot spell Jan without an 'n'.
 
I couldn´t keep my fingers away ... I simply had do look at all those Stierling's birds (mentioned in the HBW Alive Key):

• Stierling's Wren-Warbler Calamonastes stierlingi REICHENOW 1901 (here)
• Stierling's Woodpecker Dendropicos stierlingi REICHENOW 1901 (same volume, p.166)
• the subspecies (Illadopsis/Sylvia) Pseudoalcippe abyssinica stierlingi REICHENOW 1898 (here) as "Turdinus stierlingi"
• the subspecies Zosterops senegalensis stierlingi REICHENOW 1899 (here) as "Zosterops stierlingi"
• the subspecies*Psophocichla litsitsirupa stierlingi REICHENOW 1900 (here) as "Geocichla litsitsirupa stierlingi"
• ... and the the invalid "C. a. [Cinnyris affinis] stierlingi" REICHENOW 1899 (here) [synonym of Cinnyris venustus falkensteini FISCHER & REICHENOW 1884]

... but still nothing more than simply: "Dr. Stierling"

Björn
 
Thanks again Björn other than the woodpecker all the other birds are from Iranga in Uhehe or just Uhehe or just Iranga. I think tying these birds more closely to Dr. Jan Stierling. Uhehe is the land of the Hehe people or the Wahehe.
 
All of those birds was collected either in the vicinity of "Songea" "... im oberen Rowumagagebiete" alt. "... im nördlischen Niassagebiet" (which most likely is equal of Songea, capital of today's Ruvuma Region) or around "Iringa" "... in Uhehe" alt. "Iringa I." or simply in "Uhehe" (today the town Iringa, capital of the large central Iringa Region, that as I understand it, today includes the older, smaller "region" Uhehe) ... all located in "Deutsch-Ostafrika" (all in today's Tanzania).

The same Dr. Stierling is also commemorated in:
• the Earthworm Polytoreutus stierlingi MICHAELSEN 1899 (here, p.134):
Die von Herrn Dr. Stierling in Deutsch-Ost-Afrika ... Ich nenne denselben zu Ehren des Sammlers: ...
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As well mentioned (in German) here (bottom right, first page) in 1903 and it looks like the same "Dr. Stierling" left Deutsch-Ostafrika 4 February 1904 (here, top of last page), but to tell if he left for good, or not, seems harder to understand ...making it even more difficult to tell if he´s the same guy mentioned (twenty years!) later in Koloniales Hand- und Adreßbuch (1926-1927) as: "Stierling, Dr. Jan, Ob.Stabsarzt a. D. Spreenhagen, Kr. Beeskow. [D.O.A.]". Sure could be, could be a Son? Or a completely different Dr. Stierling!?

It doesn´t seem to be an uncommon name in those days. Was it?

However, it does look like there was (is?) a "Jan Stierling", of Freiburg, (!) "... bekannt als Erforscher der Tierwelt Afrikas". If he´s "our guy" ... who knows?

Either way not to confuse with the earlier Hofrath Stierling (Court councilor in the 1820's) nor with Hubert Stierling who collected Deutsche Volkslieder (German Volk Songs), in about the same Era as "our" Dr. Stierling, nor with the German Art Historian Hubert Johannes Giesbert Emil Stierling (d.1950). Or with anyone of all the Stierlings still alive. There´s quite a few of them, out there, today!

That´s all I can find. I have to leave him in more capable hands (in the ones who does understand German) ;) ...

Good luck pin-pointing him!

Björn
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He pubished at least Die Königsgräber der Wahehe which is already mentioned in post #1.

But probably also
Beitrag zur Behandlung der Pernionen (Fortschritt der Medizin Vol 41 No 10, p. 166
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In Mitteilungen aus dem Hamburgischen Zoologischen Museum und Institut I found:

Dr. Stierling, Jan. 1, 1897, ded. Jun. 9, 1898: holotype ZMH A00268 (formerly no. 1358). 1 paratype ZMH A00269, same data as holotype.
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Taphrospilus said:
In Mitteilungen aus dem Hamburgischen Zoologischen Museum und Institut I found:
Dr. Stierling, Jan. 1, 1897, ded. Jun. 9, 1898: holotype ZMH A00268 (formerly no. 1358). 1 paratype ZMH A00269, same data as holotype.
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This is taken (via Google Books?) from
Hallermann, J. 1998. Annotated catalogue of the type specimens of the herpetological collection in the Zoological Museum of the University of Hamburg. Mitt. Hamburg. Zool. Mus. Inst. 95: 197–223.
Full text (not a scan) [here].

The whole text reads:
Scolecomorphus convexus TAYLOR, 1968 [= Scolecomorphus kirkii (BOULENGER, 1883) sensu NUSSBAUM 1985: 15].
Type locality: “Uhehe”, Deutsch-Ost-Afrika (a district in south central Tanganyika [now the area around Iringa] in the Southern Highlands, south of the Ruahi [Ruaha] River [Tanzania]; leg. Dr. STIERLING Jan. 1, 1897, ded. Jun. 9, 1898: holotype ZMH A00268 (formerly no. 1358). 1 paratype ZMH A00269, same data as holotype.
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Scolecomorphus is a genus of caecilian amphibian. leg. = legit, 'he collected'; ded. = dedit, 'he gave'.
(The 'Jan.' is January, not the Dr's given name...)
 
Added bits an pieces sure keep the curiosity boiling ...

Is this "our" Dr. Stierling? Mentioned repeatedly in the book; Eine deutsche Frau im innern Deutsch-Ostafrikas : elf Jahre nach Tagebuchblättern erzahlt, published in 1908, here. All in German. If so we suddenly have a Photo of him, see page 41!

Dr. Stierling apparently delivered quite a lot of different specimens from Deutsch Ostafrika; insects, mammals, birds, fishes, etc. (here) ... thereby, in my mind, he ought to be able to find, noted in full, somewhere, in some document, in some Museum Archive. He also delivered ethnological items from East Africa, incl. a Human skeleton (!) to Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin (MfV) today's Ethnologisches Museum (EM) der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, here (No. 10 & 12).

För anyone interested where the claim that he was connected to Freiburg originated from (here); see Corps Suevia Freiburg (a Studentenverbindung/German Student Corps). If they´re correct in that claim is, of corse, yet another issue ...

Keep digging!
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Sure, Martin, but the question remain: Is it a photo of "our" Dr. Stierling ... ?

Is there anything in that text that connect this guy to collecting Naturalia or to the locations Songea or Iringa, or likewise, making the link to the birds in question a bit stronger?

Also see this note about; "Stierling, commandant of the military post at Rungemba" ... !?
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Calalp said:
Is there anything in that text that connect this guy to collecting Naturalia or to the locations Songea or Iringa, or likewise, making the link to the birds in question a bit stronger?
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Iringa is central to this book. The second chapter is about the foundation of the station (Gründung der neue Station Iringa), and the penultimate (eight) chapter about the departure from the station (Abschied von Iringa).
(Unfortunately, the ORC program seems to have had a hard time with the Fraktur types, as the name is distorted every single time it appears in the book -- see: 'Sringa', '3ringa', 'Jringa'.)
The Wahehe are also everywhere in the text.
 
I think yes. On p. 154 is written:

Dr. Stierling sagte noch gestern: wer weiß, wie sich die Wahehe nach Toms Abgang stellen würden.
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As well the chapter contains the word Safari (which is nothing else than a hunting expedition). The time in the diary with 1898 would fit as well.
 
Fair enough, Laurent and Martin, thereby I assume it´s truly him, our "Dr. Stierling" (i.e., this far, in my mind, nothing more, than; Dr. J. Stierling), on that Photo (and in the text of that book), ... but I´m still in some doubt on the "Jan" part ... could it be this guy:

Johann Stierling (born 1869), medical student in 1890, ... (here)

Born 29 September 1869 in Rostock, Germany ... studied at universities in Berlin and Freiburg (!) ... later resident as a practicing physician in Spreenshagen ... (and possibly, onwards, thereafter off and away to Deutsch-Ostafrika ... !?)

However nothing else found on this mysterious Dr. Stierling.

Don´t hesitate to prove otherwise!
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mb1848 said:
I believe this person is Jan Gysbert F. L. Stierling M.D. He was an Oberstabsarzt which is a military rank for doctors in German speaking service.
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If this is the case his ancestry may lead to the Netherlands here. But no Rostock and born in 1869 in the document.

He seemed to live in Wernigerode here or here. A letter to Felix von Luschan with the wish to return a second time to Deutsch-Ostafrika. Which may lead to Johann George Stierling and his daughter Anna Emilie Johanna Krückmann née Stierling married in Wernigerode 05.03.1901. As well a link to Rostock here.
 
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The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claims:
Stierling's Woodpecker Dendropicos stierlingi Reichenow, 1901
Stierling's Wren Warbler Calamonastes stierlingi Reichenow, 1901
Stierling's Hill Babbler Pseudoalcippe abyssinica stierlingi Reichenow, , 1898 [Alt African Hill Babbler ssp.]
African African Yellow White-eye ssp. Zosterops senegalensis stierlingi Reichenow, 1899
Groundscraper Thrush ssp. Psophocichla litsitsirupa stierlingi Reichenow, 1900
Dr N. Stierling (fl.1887–at least 1901) was a German naturalist who collected in Nyasaland (Malawi) and Tanganyika (Tanzania) (1887–1901). He was a doctor with the German colonial forces in German East Africa and had to help deal with a cholera outbreak in Zanzibar during the Maji-Maji rebellion.
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How they came to N. Stierling is their secret.
 
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