Ptilorrhoa geislerorum (Meyer, AB, 1892) (1 Viewer)

[Taphrospilus]

Ptilorrhoa geislerorum (Meyer, AB, 1892) OD here

Here we can read:

Der vorliegende Beitrag behandelt ausschliesslich Sammlungen der Gebrüder Geisler, denen die wissenschaft schon eine Reihe interessanter Sendungen verdankt, wie auch besonders die an letzer Stelle citirte Abhandlung darthut.

....

Als neu war eine Eupetes-Art zu beschreiben, die ich zu Ehren der Entdecker E. geislerorum nannte;

Ailuroedus geislerorum geislerorum Meyer, AB, 1891 OD here
Drepanornis albertisi geisleri Meyer, AB, 1893 OD here

The Eponym Dictionary of Birds claims:

Brown-capped Jewel-babbler Ptilorrhoa geislerorum A. B. Meyer, 1892 [Alt. Dimorphic Jewel-babbler]
Geisler's Catbird Ailuroedus geislerorum geislerorum A. B. Meyer, 1891 [Alt. White-eared Catbird ssp.]
Black-billed Sicklebill ssp. Drepanornis albertisi geisleri A. B. Meyer, , 1893
Bruno Geisler (1857-1945) and his brother Hubert G. Geisler were German taxidermists. They collected together, mainly for the museum in Dresden, but also for the dealer Wilhelm Schlüter (q.v.), in xceylon (Sri Lanka) and Java (1887-1889), then in New Guinea (1890-1892). Bruno later became curator at Dresden museum where A. B. Meyer (q.v.) was Professor. Bruno also illustrated works by Meyer and others. Drepanornis albertisi geisleri is named for Bruno and the other two birds after both broters. Two amphibians are named after Bruno.

The Key to Scientific Names

Bruno Geisler (1857-1945) and his brother Hubert G. Geisler (fl. 1892) German taxidermists, collectors in Ceylon, Java and New Guinea 1884-1893 (subsp. Ailuroedus buccoides, Ptilorrhoa).

I assume this came from Die Ornithologen Mitteleuropas as we can read:

Geisler , Bruno , * 5. 10. 1857 Mittelwalde bei Habelschwerdt ( Schlesien ) , 17. 10. 1945 Dresden . Für W. Schlüter (s .d.) war er zusammen mit seinem Bruder Hubert G. zuerst fleißig sammelnd in Ceylon und auf Java tätig . Mitte der 80er Jahre wurde das Bruderpaar nach dem 1884 von einer dt. Gesellschaft erworbenen Neuguinea geschickt, wo sie den Spuren O. Finschs (s . d .) folgten . 1890–1892 lagen ihre Jagdgründe an den Küsten der Kal - Halbinsel. Von hier aus belieferten sie hauptsächlich das Zool.- ethnogr. Mus. in Dresd ., und A. B. Meyer (s .d .) bearbeitete die Vogelbälge in Abh. Dresd. 1891, 1893 u . J. Orn. 40, 1892. Unter mehreren neu entdeckten Arten befand sich die die auffällige Form Eupetes geislerorum. Anfang 1893 kam Bruno G. wieder nach der Heimat zurück, um sich am 1. 8. desselben Jahres von A. B. Meyer gleich als Hilfspräparator am Mus. in Dresd. anstellen zu lassen. Der Mus.Direktor schätzte an seinem neuen Gehilfen vor allem die Begabung zum Malen und verstand , davon reichlich Gebrauch zu machen. Die vortrefflichen Vogelbilder des Präparators schmückten alsbald Meyers Beschr., neuer Arten aus dem Ostindischen Archipel sowie dessen mit L. Wiglesworth 1898 herausgegebene „Birds of Celebes“ . Auch A. Reichenow (s.d.) bediente sich gerne der Bunttafeln des Künstlers und stattete damit das J. Om . so lange aus , wie die DOG für die Kosten der Beigaben aufkommen konnte. Zwischendurch wunde G. zur Illustration des Neuen Naumann herangezogen, in dem er die Nachtigallen, Stein- u . Wiesenschmätzer, Braunellen und Drosseln (in Bd.1) neben den Wasserläufern (in Bd.9) meisterhaft darstellte.Lit. scheint er nicht hervorgetreten zu sein. Nur einige Notizen in Jber. Beob.-Stat. Sachs. 7–10, 1896 stammen von seiner Hand. Ende 1923 schied er als Oberkonservator aus dem Mus ., verließ zunächst Dresd., wohnte zuletzt aber wieder dort und wurde verarmt am 10. 10. 1945 auf dem Friedhof St. Pauli beerdigt.

I doubt that the brother has a middle name with G. as it only means Hubert Geisler. But it would be interesting to get his life dates as well.

 

[PScofield]

Bruno Geisler
Age:	88
Birth Date:	5 Okt 1857 (5 Oct 1857)
Death Date:	7 Okt 1945 (7 Oct 1945)
Death Place:	Dresden, Deutschland (Germany)

Hubert Franz Geisler
Death	after 1921
Birth Date:	9 Mrz 1864 (9 Mar 1864)

Hubert was Area Manager of the Neuguinea Kompanie in the Bismarck Archipelago from about 1904 till 1921 when the Australians deported all Germans. I can find Hubert returning from New Guinea in July 1921 and his ex wife marrying in the same year. Not sure if she was a widow or divorced (attached).

 

[l_raty]

Not sure if she was a widow or divorced (attached).

"2. die Johanna Marie geschiedene Geisler geborene Enders, ohne Beruf, [...]"
geschiedene = divorced.

 

[PScofield]

Hubert's grave here in his home own of Breslau with his second wife Bianka.

Just to reiterate then. Bruno Geisler (1857-1945) and his brother Hubert Franz Geisler (1864-1936) were not German "taxidermists".

They were Prussian collectors and explorers until the 1890s when both returned home and Bruno became a curator but Hubert returned to New Guinea and became a plantation manager and later regional governer of the Bismarck Archipelago based in Kokopo that used to be called Herbertshöhe (but not named after Hubert).

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

Guys, sorry to disturb what seems to be some kind of consensus (even if I once again will be threading on thin ice, as we're dealing with German texts, and persons), though something looks (or smells) a bit fishy in this case ...

In today's Key we find those eponyms explained as:

geisleri
Bruno Geisler (1857-1945) German explorer, bird artist, collector in Ceylon, Java and New Guinea (subsp. Drepanornis albertisi).

geislerorum
Bruno Geisler (1857-1945) and his brother Hubert Franz Geisler (1864-1936) German explorers, collectors in Ceylon, Java and New Guinea (Paul Scofield in litt.) (Ailuroedus, Ptilorrhoa).

However, in the Book/Report: Nova Guinea. Résultats de l'Expédition Scientifique Néerlandaise à la Nouvelle-Guinée en 1903. Vol. II 2éme Partie [Part 2]: Entdeckungsgeschichte von Neu-Guinea (1885 bis 1902), by Arthur Wichmann (1912, here), we find them, (first) on page 373 (here), as [my blue and bolds]:

Eine bemerkenswerte Erscheinung bilden die in zunehmer Zahl sich auf Neu-Guinea einstellenden Naturaliensammler, die es besonders auf zoologische, daneben oder auch auf botanische und etnographische Objekte abgesehen hatten. Unter ihnen sind zu nennen J. ANTHONY, L. BIRó, W. DOHERTY, J. M. DUMAS, SAM. FENICHEI, BRUNO UND HERBERT GEISLER, A. GIULIANETTI, ... and onwards

Also note that "Die Gebrüder Geisler" (The Geisler Brothers) also were mentioned, in more detail, on pp.517–518 (here), but there as Bruno Geisler and Hubert [*] Geisler ... !?!

We as well find the Older Brother "Bruno Geisler" (alone) on pp. 557–558 (here, with two references, in footnotes), and on p.809 (here).

And on p.733 (here) we find Rudolf von Benningsen: "... in Begleitung des Administrators der Neu-Guinea-Kompagnie, HERBERT GEISLER, ... ". The same (?) "H. Geisler" is also mentioned in text on p.758 (here).

*But ... the most important piece in this Work seems to be (at least to me) the Berichtungen und zusätze (Corrections and additions), on p.835 (here), where we find the following remark, regarding page 517 and 518 (as quoted above):

” __” _ [Band II. 2. Seite (Page)] 517. Z . [Z. = Zeile/line] 28 v. o., S. [S. = Seite/Page] 518, Z. 17 v. o. HERBERT statt HUBERT GEISLER.

[I assume the Abkürzung/abbreviation "v. o." stands for: "von oben" (as/in/from above) ... or?]


Either way, this far, to me, it looks like Herbert was the proper/actual name of Bruno's Brother ... !?!


Note also that the Find a Grave entry itself (as referred to in Paul's #4), tells us nothing but: "H. Geisler), born "1866" (thus not in "1864" as claimed), and died "1836". However, to tell if this particular "H. Geisler" truly was/is "our guy", or not, alt. simply just a namesake, is far, far beyond my linguistic skills ...


Who's confused? Beolens et al? Jobling, and the Key? Die Ornithologen Mitteleuropas? Herr Wichmann? Those Geni documents? All of us?

Well, one thing I know (for sure): I am ... 🙄

Björn

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

And beware, in the REGISTER of the same book we, on top of: "Geisler, Bruno", and "Geisler, Herbert", also find a: "Geiseler [sic], Kapt. Leutn." (here)... !?!

The old/earlier name Herbertshöhe (for today's Kókopo) is/was also commented in the Berichtungen und zusätze (directly on top of the amendment above). The same Herbertshöhe was equally mentioned several times in the same Work.

Do we know who's behind the name of the old 'Herbertshöhe'? ['Herbert's Hill/Hight/s']

/B

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

And by the way, could those Geisler Brothers possibly (?!?) be related to "Margarete Platen née Geisler" (the alleged wife of Dr Carl Platen), a Lady dealt with (and rightfully, strongly questioned), back in 2021, in thread Several platenae and one margarethae (here) ... ?

Maybe a way to find the Geisler Family in full ... or not?

🧩​

 

[Björn Bergenholtz]

German Wikipedia (for Bruno Geisler) earlier told us (my blue bold):

Im Jahr 1887 begann Bruno Geisler, Vögel in zu sammeln Ceylon und Jave mit seinem Bruder Herbert. 1890 zogen sie in die damalige deutsche Kolonie Neu Guinea ...

Contrary to today's ditto (here):

Bruno Geisler besammelte gemeinsam mit seinem jüngeren Bruder Hubert Geisler für den Naturalienhändler ...

Versus today's English Wiki (here):

In 1887, Bruno Geisler began collecting birds in Ceylon and Java with his brother Herbert. In 1890, they moved on to the then German colony New Guinea. ...

Also note that 'Hubert' nowadays have a German Wiki-page of his own (here) ... ?

Either way, equally noteworthy is that we, in the OD of the ssp. Drepanornis albertisi geisleri MEYER 1893 (OD in post #1, alt. again, here), find the following text (in the Intro/Vorbemerkungen, on p.1, here):

Bruno Geisler, der leider Neu Guinea nunmehr verlassen hat, ... während sein Bruder Herbert auf Neu Britannien blieb, ohne aber sein, dort weiter sammeln zu können.

... though (!?!) on the next-following page (p.2) Meyer quotes Bruno Geisler himself:

Mit meinem Bruder Hubert ...

Sigh, ... I simply don't know what to believe, re. Hubert versus Herbert, or vice versa ... !?!

Could this confusion maybe, possibly, origin in a nickname, as in the Older Brother's (Bruno's) nickname for his younger Brother? Or was there plausibly yet another (third) Brother somehow involved ...

Well, either way ... that's it. That's all of what I have, in my notes, about the Geisler Brothers. I'm (sure) glad that neither one of them, nor "their" Birds, are included in my MS.

Thus, take it all for what it's worth ... (hopefully of some use, in some whatever way, if nothing else it shows the great confusion at large).

And: Good luck understanding it all!

I'm done ... see you all elsewhere, in other threads.

Björn

PS. The Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, in München (Munich), Germany, has a Photosammlung (a Collection of Photos) by "Hubert Geisler (1863 – 1943)".

See (for example) here:

Die Photosammlung Hubert Geisler, Deutsch Neuguinea (Eine Neuerwerbung des historischen Fotoarchivs) Im Jahr 2004 konnte mit Unterstützung des Freundes und Förderkreises des Staatlichen Museums für Völkerkunde München die Fotosammlung Hubert Geisler aus dem ehemaligen Deutsch-Neuguinea für das historische Fotoarchiv erworben werden. Hubert Geisler (1863 – 1943) kam 1890 nach Finschhafen auf Neuguinea und trat 1891 in den Dienst der Neu Guinea Companie ein. Er war als Administrator vor allem in Herbertshöhe auf Neupommern (heute Neubritannien), zeitweise auch in Bogajim auf Neuguinea stationiert. Während des Ersten Weltkrieges blieb er in Neuguinea und kehrte erst 1921 endgültig nach Deutschland zurück und lebte bis zu seinemTode in Würzburg. Seine Fotosammlung umfasst 120 Glasplattennegative, (Format 13 x 18 und 18 x 24) sowie 24 großformatige Diapositive. Die Fotografien wurden von ihm selbst aufgenommen (teilweise sind auf den Glasplatten die Initialen HG eingeritzt) und stellen bisher unbekannte fotografische Dokumente zu Deutsch-Neuguinea (vor allem Neupommern, Neumecklenburg (heute Neuirland) und den deutschen Salomonen) dar.

🧩
​

 

[l_raty]

I have no explanation for the multiple instances of "Herbert", but I am definitely certain that the second attachment in Paul's post (#2 above) is the marriage record of :

1. der Leiter der Pflanzungsstation Herbertshöhe im Schutzgebiete Neu-Guinea Hubert Franz Geisler [...] geboren am neunten März des Jahres tausend achthunderd vierunsechzig [...].

And this guy must indeed have been the brother of the Oberkonservator außer Dienst Bruno Geisler, whose death record is in the first attachment to the same post, because they were born in the same place (Mittelwalde) to the same parents (Theodor Geisler and his wife Franziska geb. Plaschke).

 

[l_raty]

Do we know who's behind the name of the old 'Herbertshöhe'? ['Herbert's Hill/Hight/s']

Herbert von Bismarck - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Taphrospilus]

Do we know when Hubert died exactly in 1943 in Würzburg?

Not a bird also named for them:
Oreophryne geislerorum (Boettger, 1892) Katalog der batrachier-sammlung im Museum der Senckenbergischen naturforschenden gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main / Von prof. dr. O. Boettger ...

 

[PScofield]

There is no reason to think an online library record that gives an incomplete name and a wrong birth date would give a correct death date. The grave record I have found is from a cemetery 20km from his birthplace Mittelwalde in 1936 [but he is the wrong man see below].

If we see here it is clear they have the wrong man as he was supposedly someone born in 1863 in Koblenz, gestorben 1943 in Würzburg. We know for sure (post #9) that our man was born in Mittelwalde on 9 March 1864 so whoever died in Würzburg was not our man. Furthermore the Hubert Geisler from Koblenz is listed in the Directory for 1935 as a Anstreicher (ie a house painter) which would be rather a comedown from a Colonial Admistrator with power of life or death over hundreds of thousands - I am sure whoever died in Würzburg was not our man.

 

[l_raty]

There is no reason to think an online library record that gives an incomplete name and a wrong birth date would give a correct death date. The grave record I have found is from a cemetry 20km from his birthplace Mittelwalde in 1936.

But on the other hand, this grave is said to bear the inscription "BUERGERMEISTER H. GEISLER u. Frau BIANKA" "1866-1936 1866-1918", hence the name is also incomplete there, and the bird year doesn't match.

The H. Geisler who was Bürgermeister in Bystrzyca Kłodzka (Habelschwerdt in German) was apparently :

(image taken from this, p. 2, dated 12 Feb 1921; see also this, this and this).

 

[PScofield]

Indeed:

Theodor Moritz Hugo Geisler
Death Age	69
Event Type	Sterbefall (Death)
Birth Date	abt 1867
Death Date	28 Jun 1936 (28 Jun. 1936)
Death Place	Breslau (Wroclaw), Preußen[Polen (Poland)]

The hunt goes on...

 

[PScofield]

There is more to the article linked in my post #12 than I thought. Based on the evidence from the attached article it would appear that Frau Karin Thiele, Würzburg is a descendent of one of Hubert's siblings and donated his collection of photographs. Whilst she is incorrect about Hubert's birth date and place I assume she is correct about his death date and place (she may even have known him).

Thus Hubert Franz Geisler (1863-1943). The exact date of death will require a subscription to Acheron.

Seine geliebte Nichte Grete sollte er nicht wieder sehen, denn sie war 1917 als Krankenschwester in Jerusalem einer Typhus infek tion erlegen. Beerdigt wurde sie auf dem Ehrenfriedhof in Koblenz

Björn is insightful in post #7 when he mentions margarethae and I thought we had found her but as you will see that Bruno's daughter was Margarete Giesler (1874-1917) known as "Grete" was one of the only white women in the Colony. Sadly she was born far to late to be our honouree.

 

[Taphrospilus]

There is also his wife mentioned but they divorced in 1912. They moved still married in May 1909 to Stephansort.

Who she was is unknown to me.

 

[PScofield]

Who she was is unknown to me

She was Johanne Marie Enders (1883-)

She is discussed in post #2. Married Curt Theodor Peter in 1921.