Heinrich Agathon Bernstein

Heinrich Agathon Bernstein was born on 22 September 1828 in Breslau (modern-day Wrocław, Lower Silesia, Poland), and died on 19 April 1865 at Batanta (Raja Ampat Islands, West Papua, Indonesia).

When returned to Wrocław he studied for three and a half years at the Saksian state school at Pforta, and proceeded to St. Elisabeth’s Gymnasium in Breslau and finish his education in 1849.

In October 1849 he began studying medicine at the University at Wrocław, and became a doctor there on 16 November 1853 with his thesis De anatomia corvorum pars prima osteologia.

Johann Ludwig Christian Carl Gravenhorst, whom he met at the university, was largely responsible for drawing out Bernstein’s interest in natural history.

Bernstein was duly appointed in March 1859 as official collector for the Dutch government, and in this new role he began to collect a wide range of both flora (now in the herbaria of Wrocław) and fauna.

[2] In November 1860 he got permission from the Governor-Generals Charles Ferdinand Pahud and his successor Ludolph Anne Jan Wilt Sloet van de Beele; they granted him to travel to New Guinea.

His name is Bernstein; he has resided long in Java, as doctor at a Sanatorium, and tells me he has already sent large collections to Leyden, including the nests and eggs of more than a hundred species of birds!