Adolf Gustaf Magnus de Vylder, född 14 december 1827 i Hedvigs församling i Norrköping, död 30 juni 1908 i Nottebäck, var en svensk forskningsresande, författare, konstnär och xylograf.
Han var son till språkläraren Carl Louis de Vylder och Maria Christina Ahlborg och bror till Louis de Vylder och Maria Ribbing.
De Vylder avlade lantmätarelevexamen men lämnade denna verksamhet 1844 för att arbeta med xylografi. Fram till 1871 var han verksam som xylograf vid bland annat Norstedt & Söner och Bonniers förlag. Förutom naturvetenskapliga arbeten medverkade han i illustreringen av kalendern Svea och veckotidningen Svenska arbetaren. Som författare skrev han några lustspel och barnböckerna Djurpanorama och Den lille Aesopus 1859 som han illustrerade med kolorerade träsnitt. Som forskningsresande bedrev han naturvetenskapliga studier särskilt i entomologi. Han kunde med hjälp av statsunderstöd resa till Sydamerika och Afrika 1871–1875, han företog ytterligare en resa till Afrika 1879-1887. Föremålen och insekterna han hemförde tillföll delvis Naturhistoriska riksmuseet.
De Vylder är representerad vid Kungliga biblioteket med tre träsnittsporträtt ur Tartuffe.
De Vylders far Carl Louis de Vylder som invandrade från Belgien under napoleonkrigen utgav en Kort underättelse om sättet att måla orientaliskt snabbmåleri i Norrköping 1843. I förordet garanterar han att med 8 timmars undervisning och detta sammandrag, kan äfen den i ritning och målning helt oerfarne verkställa målningar på både papper, träd siden, sammet, stramalj, marmor och alabaster.
Mankells bok Vindens son bygger på historien om insektsforskaren Gustaf de Vylders afrikanske fosterson Josef de Vylder som kom med honom till Sverige 1875. (Wikipedia, läst 2022).
Ondonga-kungen Shikongo sha Kalulu gav vid deras möte 1873 Gustaf de Vylder namnet 'Okazepeendye', vilket betyder 'skorpiondräparen' och syftade på de Vylders insamling av insekter. Herero-folket kallade honom 'Okazepombandye', eller 'schackaldräparen' på grund av de många schakaler han skjöt (De Vylder 1998:125).
Josef de Vylders liv har också skildrats i romanen "Bara till låns" av Birgitta Hellgren (1993), som är släkt med Gustav de Vylder. (2024-02-26, Michael Barrett)
Gustaf de Vylder was born in 1827 in Sweden. Originally a surveyor, in 1844 he left this field to start a successful career as a xylographer and writer for several Swedish publishers. He also had a keen interest in natural history, especially entomology, and in 1871 he received a state grant to travel to southern Africa to pursue his studies and collect specimens. He spent two years in South Africa before he traveled to Namibia, establishing himself in Omaruru and collecting natural specimens and ethnographic objects.
Meeting Ondonga King Shikongo sha Kalulu in October 1873, de Vylder wrote in his diary that the ageing king "still looks good; in his young days he must surely have been quite a handsome man. He gave me young men as my companion and gave me the name of 'Okazepeendye' which means 'the scorpion-killer' because of the number of these insects that I have collected. The Damara call me 'Okazepombandye' or 'the jackal-killer' because of the number of these that I have killed." (De Vylder 1998:125) During his time with the Ondonga king and his sons, de Vylder purchased and bartered "ethnographic objects" from the royals. Several of these objects were identified as belonging to king Shikongo, princes Ikukutu and Kambonde.
In November 1874 in Omaruru, Gustaf de Vylder first met a Khoisan boy who would later be adopted by the Swede and given the name Joseph de Vylder.
"In the evening Mr Eriksson and I were sitting at his mother-in-law. He then showed me a Bushman boy who lay sleeping in a box. He had bought this child, who was almost dead from starvation, from a Baster; he had given a rifle for it. A Baster had killed the child's parents, and it had since then gone through many hands. Mr E had bought it only to save it from starvation. Mr Eriksson kindly gave this child to me and my wish to get a Bushman child was thereby granted. Mr E had given a rifle costing £5 for the cild. The child has been given the name Joseph, which suits him rather well as he, in the same manner as the patriarch, had been sold by his brothers. He is of the Onguaoa tribe" (from the published diary of de Vylder, entry 7 November 1874, Omaruru, 1998:218).
Joseph was born around 1868 and de Vylder brought him to Sweden in July 1875. While de Vylder's diary shows that the naturalist had real affection for his adopted son, he also exhibited Joseph as an anthropological specimen at a meeting held at the Swedish Anthropological Society on 16 October 1875 and again at the Royal Academy of Sciences on 20 October 1875 in front of an audience of "several hundred people" (Stockholms Dagblad 20 October 1875; see reports of de Vylder's lectures in the same newspaper on 9 September, 27 October, 4 November, 1875 and in the proceedings of the Anthropological Society, 16 October 1875). Joseph died of tuberculosis on 22 November 1880, in the care of foster parents in the south of Sweden, while de Vylder was on his second journey.
Returning to Sweden in 1875 de Vylder's substantial collections were purchased by Riksmuseet (the National Museum of Natural History). De Vylder returned to South Africa in 1879 and lived and worked there until 1887 when he went back to Sweden. He died in 1908.
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