Enlightenment · Europe · Science

1734

Linnaeus Botanizes in Lapland

January 1, 1734

A poor Swedish medical student, Carl Linnaeus, set out on a six-month walking expedition across Lapland, collecting plants, observing reindeer, sketching Saami shamans. The journey would found his career and provide material for the taxonomy that, within a decade, would organize every living thing into a two-name Latin system used ever since.