Brown Greater Galago - Otolicnus Crassicaudatus - Taf. II. - (1852).

Depiction: Brown Greater Galago - Otolicnus Crassicaudatus - Taf. II.
By: I.D.L. Franz Wagner (artist & lithographer)
Technique: Original handcoloured lithography.
Date of printing: 1852

- Condition: very good condition. -

Wilhelm Carl Hartwig Peters (Koldenbüttel 22 April 2015 – Berlin 20 April 1883) was a German explorer, zoologist and expert on anatomy. His botanical abbreviation was Peters. He would study medicine and natural history at the university of Copenhagen and later on at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität of Berlin. After his promotion in 1838, he would explore –along with Henri Milne Edwards- the region surrounding the Mediterranean.   Eventually Peters returned to Berlin were he became an assistant of Johannes Peter Müller, a German physiologist and maritime biologist. Under guidance and support of Müller and the famous Alexander von Humboldt, Peters started making plans for an exploration-trip to Africa. In September 1842 he would first travel to Angola but it would last un till June 1843 to reach his final destination: Mozambique. Aside from these countries, Peters also traveled to Zanzibar, the Comoros and Madagascar. In 1847 he would continue his trip back to Berlin travelling through India and Egypt bringing along with him a large collection of discovered knowledge on new species of animal species. The result was his four-volume work: Natuwissenschaftliche Reise nach Mossambique. (Berlin, Georg Reimer 1852-1882)

He would continue his career at the Berlin University, becoming a professor in 1849. In 1857 he would become the director of the zoological museum in Berlin. Under his guidance the collection of samples grew from 3700 to 10 500 specimens, thus becoming one of the most import collections of natural history specimens throughout the world.