Swedish ethnographer and naturalist Walter Kaudern spent periods studying the people of Madagascar and Indonesia, where he also collected plants.

He was born and attended university in Stockholm, receiving his PhD in zoology in 1910. From 1928 he was employed as a curator in the mineralogy department of Gothenburg Museum, and in 1932 took over museum director, which position he maintained until his death from heart failure in 1942.

A career in ethnography developed simultaneously with Kaudern's work as a natural scientist. Following two expeditions to Madagascar, in 1906-1907 and 1911-1912, he made both zoological and ethnographic observations, and collected several hundred cultural artefacts on the second expedition.

Kaudern and his family spent 1916-1920 in Indonesia, making zoological and ethnographic studies on the island of Sulawesi. Kaudern's six-volume work, Ethnographical Studies in Celebes, was published from 1925-1944, based on this expedition. His ethnographic collections were divided between Stockholm University and Gothenburg Museum.

Sources:
C. Lindberg, 2006, "A Swedish Ethnographer in Sulawesi: Walter Kaudern", Histories of Anthropology Annual, 2: 264-272
H. Wassen, 1942, "In Memoriam: Walter A. Kaudern 1881-1942", Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, 7(4): 173-175.