In 1993, the National Science Museum in Chiba bought one of the world´s biggest collections of Linnaeus items from Craaford Foundation in Sweden. The collection was gathered by the Swede Torbjörn Lenskog, a graphic designer who spent 17 years searching the world for things that once belonged to Linnaeus and his disciple Carl Peter Thunberg.
The collection includes books by Linnaeus and his successors, reports on Linnaeus´ findings and research, portraits, medals and Linnaeus´ written letters, papers and essays. Among the books, the jewel of the crown is the 1st edition of “Systema Naturae", Linnaeus´ perhaps most important work, which can only be found in some ten copies around the world. All in all more than 5000 items, among which 30 pieces are exhibited at the National Science Museum in Tokyo and another handful are exhibited at the Natural History Museum in Chiba.
For more information, please visit the websites
http://www.kahaku.go.jp/
http://www.chiba-muse.or.jp/NATURAL/