Anton Willem Nieuwenhuis (22 May 1864 – 21 September 1953) was a Dutch explorer and physician who travelled extensively in centralBorneo in the 1890s, recording valuableethnographic information about theDayak people and making biological collections.
Nieuwenhuis studied medicine atLeiden University from 1883 to 1889 and took his doctoral degree from theUniversity of Freiburg in 1890. That year, he joined the armed forces to become a medical officer in theRoyal Dutch East Indies Army, stationed in 1892 atSambas,West Kalimantan. He participated in three major expeditions to parts of Borneo not then under Dutch control, the first of which took place under the leadership ofGustaaf Adolf Frederik Molengraaff in 1893–1894. He then became the first European to cross Borneo from west to east (or vice versa), fromPontianak toSamarinda, in 1896–1897. The third expedition took place in 1898–1900.
In 1904, Nieuwenhuis was appointed professor of geography and ethnology at Leiden University and became the editor of the journalInternationales Archiv für Ethnographie. He retired in May 1934 and died in his new hometown in 1953. In an obituary,Bertram E. Smythies called him "a BorneoLivingstone".[1]
Taxa named after him include the lizardLamprolepis nieuwenhuisii,[2] the orchidBulbophyllum nieuwenhuisii, and theblue-wattled bulbul (Brachypodius nieuwenhuisii).
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