Carl Linnaeus, later Carl von Linné, (1707-1778) was a naturalist, taxonomist and professor who created his own classification system known as the Linnaean system which popularised binomial nomenclature – a system of naming organisms – which is still used today. Linnaeus was born in Sweden but also worked in the Netherlands and England. He was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1753 and was made Knight of the Polar Star in Sweden in 1758. He was ennobled in 1761 taking on the title von Linné. Through his life, he published a number of leading texts on the subject of botany including Systema Naturae (1735), Fundamenta Botanica (1736) and Species Plantarum (1753). He was the first naturalist to include 'man' within the animal kingdom, and in his publication Systema Naturae, he classified human species as 'varieties of man' based on the four corners of the world. The tenth edition of this publication included the addition of physical and moral attributions to these classifications and is considered to have formed the basis of scientific racism in the eighteenth century.

He died in 1778 and a monument was commissioned by John Hope (1725-1786) to be built in Edinburgh. Hope was a Scottish physician, botanist and professor who was an acquaintance and supporter of Linnaeus and his work. Adam was appointed to design the monument and created two variants comprising an urn on a square pedestal. The executed design (SM Adam volume 19/60) contains an inscription by John Hope.

The monument has remained in the Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, though it has been relocated several times within the gardens and now resides outside Temperate House.

Literature: A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, p.11; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 1, 2001, pp. 363, 369; D. King, Volume 2, 2001, p. 265; J. Gifford (et. al.), Buildings of Scotland: Edinburgh, 1984, p.575; G. Douglas, ‘Carl Linnaeus [later Carl von Linné] 1707-1778’ in Oxford Dictionary of Biography (online), 2007; I. Charmantier, 'Linnaeus and Race', The Linnean Society of London, online, 2020 [accessed 15 March 2024]

Louisa Catt, 2024