Four points on Lennart von Post and the invention of “Pollen Statistics”

Abstract

This essay is a contribution to the historiography of Lennart von Post and the early development of quantitative pollen analysis. Based on von Post's own publications and source material from the archives of Stockholm University College, where he was appointed professor in 1929, the essay offers four points on von Post's scientific identity and the collective work through which quantitative pollen analysis, or "pollen statistics", came into being. The four points are, first, that von Post made his career as a geologist; second, that he framed pollen analysis as a means to tackle Quaternary geological issues; third, that his work benefitted from collective work, both in the field and in the laboratory; and fourth, that quantitative pollen analysis was not accepted without criticism, taking some years to break through beyond the Geological Survey, where von Post worked before he became professor.

Editorial: Palynology and Vegetation History

“…This Research Topic (RT) was conceived as an homage to the Swedish geologist Lennart von Post (1884Post ( -1951, the founder of paleoecological palynology, to commemorate the centenary of his presentation of the first modern, quantitative pollen diagram in 1916 at the 16th Convention of Scandinavian Naturalists, held in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway (Nordlund, 2018). His diagram and its interpretation were published two years later in Swedish (Von Post, 1918) and 51 years later in English (Von Post, 1967).…”