German zoologist. Federico Carlos Berg settled in Argentina where he was director of the National Museum of Buenos Aires for a number of years. Born near Riga, Prussia, (the present day capital of Latvia) he grew up playing on the beaches of the River Daugava. Determined to become a naturalist despite lacking sufficient funds to study, he travelled around the Baltic States collecting specimens for sale. Later, in 1871, he started to teach natural history and chemistry at the Technical Preparatory School of the Baltic Polytechnic in Riga. Soon afterwards he was asked by C. G. Burmeister to move to Buenos Aires to work for him at the Public Museum and in 1873 he did just that. A few years later Berg became a professor of biology at the National Academy of Sciences in Córdoba and at the Faculty of Physical and Natural Sciences of the National College of Buenos Aires. He would fulfil the latter of these roles until his death, with the exception of two years spent organising the National Museum of Montevideo (1890-1892), during which period Eduardo L. Holmberg took his place.
When Burmeister died in 1890 Berg took over his role as director of the National Museum in Buenos Aires and made many improvements to sanitation and illumination and introduced a new system of visitor guides. He created new sections for fish, reptiles and amphibians and not only continued to manage their current publications but created the journal Comunicaciones del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires. While in Latin America he conducted collecting trips to many states in Argentina, to Chile and to Uruguay with Holmberg. Berg focused on the field of entomology, publishing over 200 works in his life including several elemental zoology texts, and was particularly interested in butterflies and bees for their symbiotic relationships with plants. He remained as director of the museum until his death in 1902. In a homage given by Holmberg in 1897, he mentioned that Berg was known throughout the scientific community for his positive qualities, his modest and elegant teachings, the tenacity with which he studied and researched and his strong conviction. There is a small street in Montevideo that is named 'Carlos Berg' in his honour.
Sources:
Deulofeu, V., 1975, "Eduardo L. Holmberg (1952-1937) ", ANCEFN- Academia Nacional de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales: http://www.ancefn.org.ar/institucional/presidentes/holmberg.htm
Holmberg, E. L., 1897, "En Honor del Dr. Carlos Berg", Boletin del Instituto Geografico Argentino 18(4,5 &6): 372-378
Porter, C. E., 1909, "El Dr Eduardo L. Holmberg", Revista Chileña de Historia Natural 13: 297-299
Carlos Berg. Wikipedia:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Berg.
