Card of the Day - 2026-02-11

Poulain Divulgateurs de la Science 4th series
Chocolat POULAIN [trade : chocolate : O/S - France] "Divulgateurs de la Science" - 4th series (1890)

Now a lot of species from the natural world had their names changed for them by this man - but he also changed his name. Today he is mostly known as Carl Linnaeus, but this card gives him two other names, Carl Von Linne and simply Linne, and we also know that he used two others, Carolus Linnaeus and Carolus a Linne

He was born on the 23rd of May, 1707, in Rashult, Sweden, and christened by yet another name, Carl Nilsson Linnaeus.  

His father was a curate, a chief priest, who also had a name change, for he was born Nicolaus Ingmarsson, named after his own father, Ingemar, hence Ingemar`s son but joined together and not apostrostrophized. However when  he went to University he changed his surname to Linnaeus, after a tree, a lime, which was the focal point of the house the family lived at.

Little Carl was not a good student but he was interested in plants, and his headmaster fostered that, sending him to a teacher at another school who was also a doctor, for at that time medicine was very much based on plants and herbs. The doctor tutored young Carl, and trained him for University, where he was known as Carolus Linnaeus. In 1728 he moved to Uppsala University, which was renowned for teaching botany and medicine, and the following year he began to work on a new classification system for plant life.

In 1732 he travelled to Lapland, thanks to a grant from the Royal Society of Sciences, which led to an encyclopaedic tome called "Flora Lapponica". Whilst he was writing that, he had a sudden thought how wonderful it would be if you could classify animals like you could plants, and this led to the publication, in 1735, of "Systeme Naturae". 

As this is the first time one of these cards has been a Card of the Day it may as well host the list of all the cards, for now, until I use a card from the first series. Though I will make sure the lists of each set are on its page as they appear

         first series 

  1. Monthyon  
  2. Parmentier
  3. Pasteur
  4. L`Abbe de l`Epee 
  5. Jouffroy
  6. Cuvier
  7. Pascal
  8. Jacquard
  9. Jenner
  10. Descartes

    second series
     
  11. Stephenson 
  12. Olivier de Serres 
  13. Robert Estienne
  14. Volta
  15. Newton 
  16. Littre  
  17. Galilee 
  18. David Livingstone 
  19. Benjamin Franklin 
  20. Claude Bernard 

    third series - 
     
  21. Edison
  22. Daguerre
  23. Frederic Sauvage
  24. Pinel 
  25. James Watt 
  26. Dr. Roux 
  27. Haller 
  28. Francois Arago
  29. Ambroise Pare
  30. Valentin Hauy

    fourth series
     
  31. Louis Robert - 
  32.  
  33. Gui d`Arezzo 
  34. Aloys Senefelder 
  35.  
  36.  
  37. Charles Sauriac
  38. Capitaine James Cook 
  39. Aloisio Galvani 


  40. fifth series 
     
  41. Lacepede
  42. Humphry Davy
  43. Monge 
  44. Harvey
  45. Bentham
  46. Champion
  47. Humboldt
  48. Chevalier Roze
  49. Dennis Papin
  50. La Perouse

Whilst sorting out this list I also found another issuer

  • CASIEZ-Bourgeois - chicory coffee - Cambrai, France