Johann Schmeltz

Johannes Dietrich Eduard Schmeltz ( 1839 , Hamburg - 1909) was a German ethnographer and naturalist.Schmeltz had no formal scientific training but studied with many well established Hamburg naturalists including
Georg Semper , Otto Semper , Carl Friedrich August Alexander Crüger and Johann Georg Christian LehmannA keen lepidopterist he corresponded with Philipp Christoph Zeller. In 1861 Schmeltz became "Kustos" or senior curator of the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg, which specialised in the natural history and ethnography of the South Seas.The museum was described in Dutch, Danish, German, English, and Austrian scientific journals as one of the best collections of its kind. He remained in this post until the bankruptcy and dissolution of J. C Godeffroy & Sohn. in 1879 forced closure of the museum. By then an authority on the ethnography of the Pacific islands he left Hamburg to become the director of the Rijks Ethnographisch Museums in Leiden.

Schmeltz was the Editor of "Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie". Rijksmuseum van Oudheden te Leiden.1888-?, a German language journal.Amongst the contributors and editorial panel were Otto Finsch and Rudolf Virchow and Edward Burnett Tylor.At this time he had the title "Doktor" [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doktor#Deutschland]

Works

One of Schmeltz´ museum duties was to produce sales catalogues,since the museum was independent of the mercantile and shipping company J. C Godeffroy & Sohn.These were lists with descriptions of duplicate "Doubletten" natural history specimens and artifacts offered private collectors or other museums.Some of the catalogues began with narratives of collecting expeditions.and very full collecting details (Topographische und zoologische Notizen).

The Cataloguesyear?'Catalog I der zum Verkauf stehenden Doubletten ausdem naturhistorischen Expeditionen der Herren Joh.Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn in Hamburg".Hamburg
* 1865 "Catalog II der zum Verkauf stehenden Doubletten ausdem naturhistorischen Expeditionen der Herren Joh.Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn in Hamburg". Hamburg. iv + 33 pp.
*1866 Catalog III der zum Verkauf stehenden Doubletten aus dem naturhistorischen Expeditionen der Herren Joh.Ces. Godeffroy & Sohn in Hamburg. Hamburg.iii + xii + 52 pp.
*1869 "Museum Godeffroy. Catalog IV, nebst einer Beiläge,enthaltend: topographische Notizen; Beschreibungneuer Bryozoen von Senator Dr. Kirchenpauer zu Hamburg und einer neuen Asteriden-Gattung von Dr.Chr. Lütken zu Kopenhagen". Wilhelm Mauke Söhn Perthes-Besser & Mauke, Hamburg xxxix + iii + 139 + 2 pp.
*1874 "Museum Godeffroy. Catalog V. Nebst einer Beiläge enthaltend topographische und zoologische Notizen".L. Friedrichsen & Co., Hamburg. xxxvi + ii + 215pp.
*1877 "Museum Godeffroy. Catalog VI. Nachträge zu Catalog.V.". L. Friedrichsen & Co., Hamburg v + 108 pp.
*1879 "Museum Godeffroy. Catalog VII. Wirbeltheire(Animalia vertebrata) und Nachträge zu Catalog V & VI aus den übrigen Thierklassen". L. Friedrichsen and Co., Hamburg.viii + 99 pp.
*1881 Museum Godeffroy, Hamburg. Catalog VIII. "Zoologischer Anzeiger" 4(91) (Beilage)

Other (partial list)
*1881 with R. Krause "Die enthographisch-anthropologische Abtheilung des Museums Godeffroy". 1881 687 pages, 46 tables, 1 map., Hamburg (L. Friedrichsen & Co)
*1888. with R. Krause. Die ethnographisch anthropologische Abtheilung des Museum Godeffroy. "Archiv f. Ethnographie", Bd. I, 60-7.
*1897. "Johann Stanislaus Kubary, der Erforscher der Südsee-Inseln, gest. im Oktober 1896 auf der Insel Ponape." [Johann Stanislaus Kubary, the researcher of the South Sea Islands, who died in October 1896 on the island of Pohnpei] . Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie 10, pp. 132-136.Long obituary of Kubary. [http://marshall.csu.edu.au/CNMI/CNMIBIB/0589.pdf]