The Kruse Letters : Letters from Johann August Kruse to his family in Germany and Letters to Johann from his Father. Vols 1-3, 1852-1875 / translated by Robert Story

MLMSS 6888/Box 1X

fonds

1852-1875, translated and compiled 1996-2009

403104

0.10 metres of textual material (3 volumes in outsize box)

Johann August Kruse, pharmacist, was born in Germany on 7 July 1822, eldest child of Friedrich Kruse and his wife Anna Genesa Elisabeth, nee Bengen. Educated at the University of Gottingen, Kruse was apprenticed at Emden and managed a number of pharmacies in Germany before moving to London, where he managed a pharmacy for Dr. Weiler in Oxford Street. He returned to Germany in early 1853 to marry Johanna Christina Bendix, and emigrated to Melbourne on the 'Chusan', arriving 18 November 1853. Johann immediately built a pharmacy and house in Richmond, the materials for which he carried with him on the 'Chusan'. The pharmacy burned down in 1855 but Kruse went on to own and operate a number of pharmacies throughout Melbourne. As a founding member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Victoria in 1857, he advocated the institution of formal courses in pharmacy in Melbourne. The Pharmacy Board of Victoria initiated such a course through the Melbourne Technological Museum in 1881, for which Kruse lectured in materia medica and botany. He then became the Pharmacy Board of Victoria's first Director of the Melbourne College of Pharmacy, which position he held until 1886. Johann and Johanna had three children, Elise (1855-1911), Freidrich Franz (1857-1862) and Johann Secundus (1859-1927). Kruse died at Hawthorn on 19 October 1895. Baron von Meuller commemorated his name and contributions to pharmacy by naming Eucalyptus kruseana in 1895, and Kruse's Fluid Magnesia, first manufactured by Johann in 1864, is still in production in 1999.

Comb bound volumes (3) of translations and related papers, being photocopied typescript and computer printouts. The volumes were privately circulated in 1996, 1999 and 2009 and donated to selected libraries.
Volumes 1-3 include English translations by Robert Story
Volumes 1-2 include additional notes and papers compiled by Sheila Kruse
Volume 3 includes additional notes and papers compiled by Margaret Davis