Eschscholtz was born in the
Livonian city of
Dorpat, then part of the
Russian Empire. His parents, Johann Gottfried and Katherine Hedwig Ziegler Eschscholtz were ethnic
Baltic Germans. Eschscholtz received a medical degree in 1815.
First voyage On the recommendation of Ledebour, Eschscholtz served as surgeon and naturalist on the Russian expeditionary ship
Rurik under the command of
Otto von Kotzebue. From 1815 to 1818 the expedition circumnavigated the globe for the purposes of seeking a
Northwest Passage and exploring the lands bordering the Pacific Ocean. In addition to Eschscholtz, the scientific team included botanist
Adelbert von Chamisso and artist
Louis Choris. The expedition left
Kronstadt, Russia, on 30 June 1815, stopping at the Canary Islands in September and then crossing the Atlantic to Santa Catarina, Brazil. They passed Cape Horn in January 1816 and sailed north for several months to reach
Kamchatka in July. From there they spent the rest of 1816 visiting the Aleutian Islands, California, and Hawaii. At each stop Eschscholtz collected specimens and recorded his observations of the local flora and fauna. Eschscholtz and Chamisso worked well together and became good friends. When Kotzebue became ill in 1817, they cut short a planned return to the Arctic and headed home, stopping again in Hawaii and then in the Philippines before ending their voyage at St. Petersburg in August 1818. He also published some of his entomological finds in
Entomographien (1822). Again Eschscholtz amassed significant collections of natural history specimens, especially insects. Substantial insect collections were made in Hawaii, Alaska, and California. After a voyage of three years, the expedition returned home in July 1826. In 1830, Kotzebue and Eschscholtz published a report of their voyage titled
A new voyage round the world in the years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Eschscholtz published illustrated descriptions of the new fauna he encountered in
Zoologischer Atlas, 1829-1833; and provided further information in
System der Akalephen, 1829. He also continued to work at the University of Dorpat, serving as professor of medicine and zoology and director of the zoological museum. Of the many insects he collected, about 100 butterflies and twenty beetles were species new to science. Eschscholtz described some of them before his death but many were described by others, including Swedish naturalist
Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, French entomologist
Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean, and Russian entomologist
Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim. Eschscholtz died on 7 May 1831 in Dorpat, Estonia at the age of 37. ==Legacy==