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What happened to Carolus Linnaeusâs collections and manuscripts after his son died?
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Carolus Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus, engraving from Robert John Thornton's The Temple of Flora (1807).
Following the death of Carolus Linnaeus in 1778, his son, Carl, became the custodian of his extensive collections and manuscripts. However, Carl died only a few years later. Subsequently, Linnaeusâs widow, Sara Elisabeth, sold the entire collectionâincluding the manuscriptsâto Sir James Edward Smith, who later founded the Linnean Society of London.1