666 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
1819 (6). His father and grandfather bore the name Ludwig 
Kumlien (8). His father owned and operated several large 
estates. Thure Kumlien, in a letter to the Hofintendant (Royal 
Minister), says: 
“My father, Ludwig Kumlien, was born in Uppland, Sweden, March 4, 
1790; he died, July 7, 1839. He married Johanna Petronelle Rhodin, 
daughter of a minister in Broddetorp, born June 25, 1800, died April 28, 
1838. My father passed the royal examination in Upsala. Served after 
that for some time in Sweden’s Royal Court. After that he was ap¬ 
pointed regimental secretary to Skaraborg’s regiment, with the title, 
honor, and worthiness of assessor” ( 7 ). 
“Thure, the oldest of fourteen children, was early entrusted to a pri¬ 
vate tutor, and soon entered the gymnasium at Skara and subsequently 
graduated from the University of Upsala in 1843”( 3 ). 
“His undaunted desire for zoology and botany manifested itself so early 
that already as a school boy he had a whole room packed full from floor 
to ceiling with birds that he had shot and mounted so skillfully and true 
to life that an old accustomed conservator could not have done it better, 
wherefore, also at the time of his leaving the Skara institution of learn¬ 
ing, all this was received with gratefulness as a gift from him to the 
zoological collection of the school” ( 7 ). 
Upsala had no professor of ornithology, and young Kumlien in 
his study of wild life was obliged to encompass it almost alone (9). 
The aid and encouragement of his father enabled him to acquire a 
considerable amount of knowledge of art and natural history aside 
from his studies (10). His parents had designed that young Kum¬ 
lien should follow medicine, and proposed after his graduation at 
Upsala that he should attend the best medical schools. 
“While a student at Upsala, he was the bosom friend of the elder Fries. 
Among his classmates were men who have since become some of Sweden’s 
most eminent statesmen, poets, musicians, scientists, and literati. With 
many of these he corresponded for many years” ( 3 ). 
In a letter to President Twombly of the University of Wiscon¬ 
sin, Thure Kumlien writes of himself: 
“Having gone through the regular course of studies at the schools and 
gymnasium, I studied four years at Upsala University. In 1842 I made a 
collecting tour of some of the Islands of the Baltic [iSea] and found many 
rare specimens both of plants and birds. Among the latter was a gull 
that had not been found in Sweden since Linnaeus found it.” 
There lived near Upsala the most beautiful girl of all this na¬ 
tion of handsome women. She was Margretta Christina Wall- 
