Nannenga-Bremekamp, Neeltje Elizabeth (Elly) (1916-1996)

Herbarium
Natural History Museum (BM)
Collection
Plant Collectors
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Contributor
Natural History Museum (BM)
First name(s)
Neeltje Elizabeth (Elly)
Last name
Nannenga-Bremekamp
Initials
N.E.
Life Dates
1916 - 1996
Specification
Plant collector
Groups collected
Bryophytes
Fungi
Spermatophytes
Organisation(s)
U (main), BM, BR, DPU (currently NY)
Countries
Europe: Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, United KingdomIndo-China: VietnamSouthern Africa: Angola, Malawi, South AfricaTropical Africa: Congo, Democratic Republic, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia
Associate(s)
Bozonnet, J. (fl. 1985) (co-author)
Bremekamp, Neeltje Elizabeth (1916-) (née)
Candoussau, Françoise (1934-) (co-author)
Carter, S. (fl. 1972) (co-author)
Chassain, M. (fl. 1977) (co-author)
Chopra, R.K. (fl. 1990) (co-author)
Critchfield, R.L. (fl. 1988) (co-author)
Dhillon, S.S. (fl. 1978) (co-author)
Döbbeler, Peter (1946-) (co-author)
Eliasson, Uno H. (1939-) (co-author)
Finger, J. (fl. 1987) (co-author)
Flatau, L. (fl. 1987) (co-author)
Frentrop, J.G.J. (fl. 1981) (co-author)
Gottsberger, Gerhard Karl (1940-) (co-author)
Härkönen, Marja (1939-) (co-author)
Hoof, H.A. van (fl. 1950) (co-author)
Hooff, J.P.M. van (fl. 1996) (co-author)
Ing, B. (1937-) (co-author)
Ladó, Carlos (1955-) (co-author)
Lakhanpal, T.N. (fl. 1968) (co-author)
Loerakker, W.M. (fl. 1975) (co-author)
Mitchell, D.W. (fl. 1976) (co-author)
Moreno H., G. (1951-) (co-author)
Mukerji, Krisha Gopal (1934-) (co-author)
Nannenga, Everhard Tonko (1907-) (husband)
Nannenga, Neeltje Elizabeth (synonym)
Neubert, H. (1935-2003) (co-author)
Pasricha, R. (fl. 1987) (co-author)
Schinner, Franz (1947-) (co-author)
Sharma, R. (fl. 1981) (co-author)
Singh, N. (fl. 1978) (co-author)
Stephenson, Steven L. (1943-) (co-author)
Thind, Kartar Singh (1917-1991) (co-author)
Willemse, M.T.M. (fl. 1994) (co-author)
Yamamoto, Y. (fl. 1984) (co-author)
Biography
Indonesian-born Dutch botanist interested in the Myxomycetes. Born Neeltje Elizabeth Bremekamp in Soerayabe, Indonesia, Elly (as she was known) did not remain in South East Asia for long. Both of her parents were biologists but, when her mother unexpectedly passed away, she moved with her father to his home country, the Netherlands. Elly attended primary school in Delft and Amsterdam before her father was appointed professor at the University of Transvaal in South Africa. She moved with him to Pretoria in 1924 but soon returned to Europe where she studied at a secondary school in England. Later, at the University of Utrecht, she too studied biology and was initially interested in the taxonomy of phanerogamic plants. It was at university that Elly met fellow biology student E.T. Nannenga, her future husband, and the pair moved to Heelsum in Gelderland.

Studying various aspects of biology she was a talented illustrator and focused on shells, fungi, Lepidoptera and the mosses. It wasn’t until her house was tragically damaged in World War Two, destroying almost all of her collection and library, that she turned to the plasmodial or acellular slime moulds. This is apparently because one of the only books that could be salvaged from the wreck was Lister's mycetozoa monograph. From 1960 she began to publish extensively on this topic and was soon a world authority. Nannenga-Bremekamp collected widely in Africa as well as western Europe and published on the Myxomycete flora of the Himalayas, India and Japan, although the majority of her publications focus on this taxa in the Netherlands. She is responsible for a herbarium of 17,399 sheets and 11,575 microscope slides which was donated to the National Botanic Garden of Belgium (BR) on her death in 1996, as were some 6,500 of her illustrations. These are currently being digitised by BR to create a database of all of her work. The Nannenga-Bremekamps had four daughters.

Sources:
The Myxoworld of Nannenga-Bremekamp, National Botanic Garden of Belgium (BR):
http://www.br.fgov.be/RESEARCH/COLLECTIONS/HERBARIUMS/FUNGI/MYXO/NANNENGA/index.html, accessed 15 November 2010.
References
Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E., Authors Pl. Names (1992): 84, 449; Vegter, H.I., Index Herb. Coll. M (1976): 579;
Nannenga-Bremekamp, Neeltje Elizabeth (Elly) (1916-1996)
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