Coenraad Jacob Temminck

Who was Coenraad Jacob Temminck?

Coenraad Jacob Temminck was a Dutch aristocrat and zoologist.

Temminck was the first director of the National Natural History Museum at Leiden from 1820 until his death. His Manuel d'ornithologie, ou Tableau systématique des oiseaux qui se trouvent en Europe was the standard work on European birds for many years. He inherited a large collection of bird specimens from his father, who was treasurer of the Dutch East India Company. In 1831, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Temminck was also the author of Histoire naturelle générale des Pigeons et des Gallinacées, Nouveau Recueil de Planches coloriées d'Oiseaux, and contributed to the mammalian sections of Philipp Franz von Siebold's Fauna japonica.