French entomologist with an interest in botany. As the son of a physician the Toulon-born Guillaume-Antoine Olivier studied medicine in Montpellier where he met Pierre Marie Auguste Broussinet who would become secretary of the Society of Agriculture in Paris. Olivier wished to join his friend in the capital but his father refused him the funds.
Eventually in 1783, after practicing medicine in his home town, he was commissioned by the intendant Luis Bénigne François Berthier de Sauvigny to obtain statistics on his province. Sadly this work was all but destroyed at the taking of the Bastille when Sauvigny was assassinated but the position allowed Olivier to be with Broussinet in Paris. He soon began work as an entomologist, travelling to England and Holland studying insects for the Receveur General des Finances who was also an amateur entomologist. In 1789 he published Histoire naturelle des Coléoptères and very soon afterwards collaborated on a dictionary of insects, butterflies and crustaceans. His work in this role ended when his benefactor was guillotined.
By this time friends with Jean Guillaume Bruguière, the two of them collaborated with Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in the creation of the Journal d'Histoire Naturelle in 1792. The same year Olivier and Bruguière's friend, Broussinet, was able to gain permission for the pair to travel to the Ottoman Empire on the French Near East Expedition. Originally the aim of the expedition was to collect natural history items although the mission soon turned political. On arrival in Istanbul the French ambassador had been removed and, while they awaited further instruction, the pair travelled around Turkey, Greece and Egypt collecting plant and animal specimens. The new ambassador's instructions were for them to help create a Franco-Persian alliance and they set off for Baghdad, Kermanshah and finally Tehran. Unfortunately Bruguière became very ill on their return and, after visiting Cyprus, Athens and Corfu, died on the journey back to France. Olivier arrived back with their specimens in 1798 and between 1802 and 1807 published an extensive account of the expedition along with an atlas. In later life Olivier began to work at the Veterinary School of Alfort, first as an inspector (1809), and then as a professor of zoology (1811). Unfortunately his health was failing and he died at 58 of a heart attack in Lyons.
Sources:
S. Tillier and P. Mordan, 1983, " The conchological collections of Bruguière and Olivier from the Ottoman Empire (1792-1798)", Journal of conchology, 31(3): 153-160
Wikipedia, Guillaume-Antoine Olivier:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume-Antoine_Olivier, accessed February 2010.
