An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

FORSTER, Johann Reinhold

6 entries
  • 11615

A catalogue of the animals of North America: Containing, an enumeration of the known quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, crustaceous and testaceous animals ... to which are added short directions for collecting, preserving, and transporting, all kinds of natural history curiosities.

London: B. White, 1771.

Largely based on specimens he had access to from the British collections of Thomas Pennant and Anna Blackburne, this was Forster's attempt to systemize on the Linnean model the fragmented field of natural history studies from the Americas. It includes important directions for collecting and preserving specimens. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: MUSEUMS › Natural History Museums / Wunderkammern, NATURAL HISTORY, ZOOLOGY
  • 12472

Travels through that part of North America formerly called Louisiana by Mr. Bossu, ... Translated from the French by John Reinhold Forster, F.A.S. Illustrated with notes relative chiefly to natural history to which is added by the translator a systematic catalogue of all the known plants of English North America, or a Flora Americae Septentrionalis together with an abstract of the most useful and necessary articles contained in Peter Loefling's travels through Spain and Cumana in South America referred to the pages of the original Swedish edition. 2 vols.

London: T. Davies, 1771.

This work is a series of 21 letters that Bossu wrote to the Marquis de L’Estrade describing his life and travels in the vast Louisiana country from 1751 to 1762. His ventures ranged from Fort Chartres, in present-day Illinois, to Mobile, and along the Mississippi. His visit to New Orleans took place only thirty years after its founding, and he was able to gather considerable information from the memories of locals. “Bossu wrote well and his letters not only give an interesting picture of life in the Mississippi Valley and the Mobile Country to the east at the beginning of the second half of the eighteenth century, but incorporated also are many sketches of events in preceding years” – Streeter. “The first volume is almost entirely filled with historical and personal sketches of the Southern Indian Tribes of the present United States” – Field. Forster devoted nearly of all of the second volume to the catalogue of plants. This catalogue, based on specimens that Forster saw in England, and on the work of the Swedish botanist Pehr Loefling, did not appear in the original French edition of 1768.

Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.



Subjects: BOTANY › Catalogues of Plants, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › Louisiana, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 12477

Characteres generum plantarum, quas in itinere ad insulas maris Australis, collegerunt, descripserunt, delinearunt, annis 1772-1775.

London: B. White, T. Cadell, & P. Elmsly, 1776.

This account of botanical discoveries made by the Forsters in Australia and New Zealand on Cook's second voyage was one of the earliest scientific publications resulting from that voyage. Specimens were illustrated on 78 engraved plates. The regular edition was in quarto form; 8 copies were issued in folio format.

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: BOTANY › Catalogues of Plants, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Australia, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › New Zealand, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 7564

Observations made during a voyage round the world, on physical geography, natural history, and ethic philosophy. Especially on 1. The earth and its strata, 2. Water and the ocean, 3. The atmosphere, 4. The changes of the globe, 5. Organic bodies, and 6. The human species.

London: G. Robinson, 1778.

The natural history of Captain James Cook's second voyage in the Pacific; Forster and his son Georg were appointed naturalists to the voyage after Joseph Banks withdrew from the position. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.



Subjects: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists
  • 11526

Descriptiones animalium quae in itinere ad Maris Australis Terras per annos 1772, 1773 et 1774 suscepto. By Johann Reinhold Forster. Edited by Hinrich Lichtenstein.

Berlin: Officina Academica, 1844.

Forster was the naturalist on James Cook's second Pacific voyage, during which he was accompanied by his son Georg. 

His Descriptiones animalium was completed within a month of returning to England with Cook, but remained unpublished until it was  edited by Hinrich Lichtenstein and published in 1844. It contains some very detailed descriptions of the Cape animals, Promontorium Bonae Spei (pp. 362–410), also a listing of the animals of Madeira and Ascension.

"From a scientific point of view, Forster’s most important work would have been the Descriptiones animalium - but these were only rediscovered and published in 1844 by Hinrich Lichtenstein (1780–1857), the director of the Berlin Natural History Museum. The Descriptiones were a zoological survey and description of the animal species discovered on the world voyage with Cook. In the manuscript, Forster had ordered the animals according to their geographical origin, and described them using the Linnaean method. As the manuscript remained unpublished during his lifetime, Forster could not reap the fruits of his labor and even had to watch other naturalists such as Johann Friedrich Gmelin and John Latham claim the first descriptions of animals he had actually already recorded“ (Mariss, Johann Reinhold Forster and the making of Natural History of Cook’s Second voyage …. 2019, 25).

Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.



Subjects: VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists, ZOOLOGY
  • 11528

Johann Reinhold Forster and the making of natural history on Cook's Second Voyage, 1772–1775. By Anne Mariss.

Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019.


Subjects: NATURAL HISTORY › History of Natural History, VOYAGES & Travels by Physicians, Surgeons & Scientists › History of Voyages & Travels by Physicians....