Post by nomad on Dec 22, 2014 9:09:22 GMT
Elsewhere I have written about some of the finest historical field insect collectors such as A.S. Meek, A.E. Pratt and Will Doherty. Professional collectors such as these men were often collecting for wealthy private individuals. Meek and Doherty for Lord Walter Rothschild and A.E. Pratt and his sons for James John Joicey. It often supposed that because of their wealth Rothschild and Joicey financed their professional field collectors expeditions, but this was not usually the arrangement. The collector had to pay his own travel expenses and would only receive money for the collections that he was able to make. This incentive made those field collectors highly skilled driven men who discovered many new species in many remote parts of the world. Here I would like to celebrate briefly perhaps the greatest private butterfly collector of all time ' Lord Walter Rothschild ' (1868-1937). This is not a biography, this has been done so admirably by his niece the well known entomologist Miriam Rothschild and anyone wishing to know more about the life of the great collector should consult her fine work, Dear Lord Rothschild, Birds, butterflies & History published in 1983.
One day at the age of just seven years old Walter Rothschild turned to his mother and declared " I am going to make a ' Natural History Museum '. Little did his mother and father then realize that her sons " My Museum " (Rothschild throughout his life always referred affectionately to it with these words would take his passion and obsession to such heights .
Rothschild main interest as far as insects were concerned began with his collection of Coleoptera which contained some 300,000 specimens of 60,000 species. Rothschild greatest asset besides his vast wealth was his photographic memory, others called him a walking encyclopedia of Entomology. He was also chose his two curators for his private Tring museum very carefully, he wanted the best and got them. He had the good fortune and insight to employ both from Germany Karl Jordan ( 1861-1959) to originally curate and organize his collection of beetles and later work on his lepidoptera and Ernst Hartert (1859-1933) to look after his bird specimen collections.
In 1894, Rothschild , declared to Jordan, that he was giving up collecting beetles and was going to sell them except for some of the types. Butterflies and Moths were now going to form his main insect collections and he wanted Jordan to write a revision of the ' Eastern Papilios ' a group his curator then knew little about. However, Jordan was an entomological genius and studied all the available literature and produced a fine work.
At its height, Rothschild lepidoptera collections contained two and a quater million species including numerous types. Rothschild had a worldwide network of collectors that sent in specimens. Some of these collectors have already been mentioned but among the many others there was the explorer A.F.R. Wollaston, Rothschild brother Charles, Cecil Boden Kloss, F.W. Riggenbach, and many others were all busy sending in numerous treasures. The dealers Watkins & Doncaster and William Rosenberg (also a field collector for Rothschild) of London saved all their best material for him. Specimens were also bought from Eugene Le Moult of Paris a particularly expensive dealer. Walter Rothschild was not just a desk bound entomologist, he made extensive collections in North Africa and Europe and Karl Jordan did the same.
In all, Karl Jordan by himself or with Walter Rothschild published 460 papers, many in the Museum's Journal Novitates Zoologicae. Jordan described 2575 new species and another 851 species with Walter or Charles Rothschild. His Museum also displayed large Zoological collections that were open to the public and attracted large crowds of visitors. In ' my museum ' Rothschild felt happy inside his scientific world. Outside of the museum Walter's world was far from rosy and rather bleak. His father had wanted his eldest son to follow his footsteps into the family banking business and greatly disapproved of Walter's large expenditure on his museum and practically disowned him. Walter never married but had several mistresses, one of which, when he ended the arrangement with her, then began with her new husband to blackmail him, which continued for most of his adult life, his money disappearing into that black hole. In 1933 with increasing debts Rothschild sold his Bird collections to the American Museum of Natural History in New York for $ 225,000, a little more than a dollar a specimen. Hartert who had retired to Berlin, is said to have wept when he heard the news. However, Rothschild's vast lepidoptera collections were retained until his death a few years later and were given in a bequest and added to other famous collections of the British Museum of Natural History.
The Australian Entomologist E.F.B. Common wrote of the Rothschild lepidoptera collection.
" First it [ the Rothschild collection] made available to the scientific world an immense quantity of well preserved specimens from many remote areas which were then difficult of access and are now greatly change or impossible, for political or other reasons to sample adequately. Our knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of many of the larger lepidoptera, for example, is based on the Rothschild material. The collections are therefore rich in type material of great taxonomic significance. Second the representation of so many species is sufficient to permit reliable conclusions about variation.Consequently the collections are of great value as a source of hypotheses on zoogeography and genetics and a reference point for such studies.Third, the collection provided the basis for the valuable work of Rothschild himself and of Karl Jordan. It is highly significant, I believe, that the major contributions of the two scientists are still the standard reference works.These comments, it is said, support a case for the historical value of the collection but do not mean that the collection has a great scientific value in the modern World. On the contrary, the present-day value of the collection lies in its providing irreplaceable source of voucher material for the taxonomic and other conclusions that have been based upon it. It is a well accepted principle that voucher examples of the specimens or species upon which biological work is based , whether taxonomic, biochemical, physiological or ecological, should remain deposited in a reputable collection, so future workers will be able to determine objectively the reliability of any identifications. The Rothschild collection not only provides these voucher specimens, but a vast amount of additional material upon which much valuable work can be based on in the future."
We said Mr Common and well done Walter Rothschild for a life very well spent. Today you can still visit the Tring Museum with its mainly stuffed Animal collections on display in the Victorian buildings that are looked after by the BMNH.
Rothschild collections were very large but there were many other grand private insect collections and it would be interesting to hear from other members here about their favourites, who made them and what they contained whether they are in still in private hands or have been placed in Museums.
Walter Rothschild around nine years old with his butterfly net.
Lord Walter Rothschild at work in his museum.
The three wise men.
A cabinet drawer of Ornithoptera chimaera from the Rothschild collections now in the BMNH. The specimens here are the original series collected by A.S. Meek in the Owen Stanley Range of New Guinea. A interesting setting style with the forelegs displayed under the antennae that is not seen nowadays.
One day at the age of just seven years old Walter Rothschild turned to his mother and declared " I am going to make a ' Natural History Museum '. Little did his mother and father then realize that her sons " My Museum " (Rothschild throughout his life always referred affectionately to it with these words would take his passion and obsession to such heights .
Rothschild main interest as far as insects were concerned began with his collection of Coleoptera which contained some 300,000 specimens of 60,000 species. Rothschild greatest asset besides his vast wealth was his photographic memory, others called him a walking encyclopedia of Entomology. He was also chose his two curators for his private Tring museum very carefully, he wanted the best and got them. He had the good fortune and insight to employ both from Germany Karl Jordan ( 1861-1959) to originally curate and organize his collection of beetles and later work on his lepidoptera and Ernst Hartert (1859-1933) to look after his bird specimen collections.
In 1894, Rothschild , declared to Jordan, that he was giving up collecting beetles and was going to sell them except for some of the types. Butterflies and Moths were now going to form his main insect collections and he wanted Jordan to write a revision of the ' Eastern Papilios ' a group his curator then knew little about. However, Jordan was an entomological genius and studied all the available literature and produced a fine work.
At its height, Rothschild lepidoptera collections contained two and a quater million species including numerous types. Rothschild had a worldwide network of collectors that sent in specimens. Some of these collectors have already been mentioned but among the many others there was the explorer A.F.R. Wollaston, Rothschild brother Charles, Cecil Boden Kloss, F.W. Riggenbach, and many others were all busy sending in numerous treasures. The dealers Watkins & Doncaster and William Rosenberg (also a field collector for Rothschild) of London saved all their best material for him. Specimens were also bought from Eugene Le Moult of Paris a particularly expensive dealer. Walter Rothschild was not just a desk bound entomologist, he made extensive collections in North Africa and Europe and Karl Jordan did the same.
In all, Karl Jordan by himself or with Walter Rothschild published 460 papers, many in the Museum's Journal Novitates Zoologicae. Jordan described 2575 new species and another 851 species with Walter or Charles Rothschild. His Museum also displayed large Zoological collections that were open to the public and attracted large crowds of visitors. In ' my museum ' Rothschild felt happy inside his scientific world. Outside of the museum Walter's world was far from rosy and rather bleak. His father had wanted his eldest son to follow his footsteps into the family banking business and greatly disapproved of Walter's large expenditure on his museum and practically disowned him. Walter never married but had several mistresses, one of which, when he ended the arrangement with her, then began with her new husband to blackmail him, which continued for most of his adult life, his money disappearing into that black hole. In 1933 with increasing debts Rothschild sold his Bird collections to the American Museum of Natural History in New York for $ 225,000, a little more than a dollar a specimen. Hartert who had retired to Berlin, is said to have wept when he heard the news. However, Rothschild's vast lepidoptera collections were retained until his death a few years later and were given in a bequest and added to other famous collections of the British Museum of Natural History.
The Australian Entomologist E.F.B. Common wrote of the Rothschild lepidoptera collection.
" First it [ the Rothschild collection] made available to the scientific world an immense quantity of well preserved specimens from many remote areas which were then difficult of access and are now greatly change or impossible, for political or other reasons to sample adequately. Our knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of many of the larger lepidoptera, for example, is based on the Rothschild material. The collections are therefore rich in type material of great taxonomic significance. Second the representation of so many species is sufficient to permit reliable conclusions about variation.Consequently the collections are of great value as a source of hypotheses on zoogeography and genetics and a reference point for such studies.Third, the collection provided the basis for the valuable work of Rothschild himself and of Karl Jordan. It is highly significant, I believe, that the major contributions of the two scientists are still the standard reference works.These comments, it is said, support a case for the historical value of the collection but do not mean that the collection has a great scientific value in the modern World. On the contrary, the present-day value of the collection lies in its providing irreplaceable source of voucher material for the taxonomic and other conclusions that have been based upon it. It is a well accepted principle that voucher examples of the specimens or species upon which biological work is based , whether taxonomic, biochemical, physiological or ecological, should remain deposited in a reputable collection, so future workers will be able to determine objectively the reliability of any identifications. The Rothschild collection not only provides these voucher specimens, but a vast amount of additional material upon which much valuable work can be based on in the future."
We said Mr Common and well done Walter Rothschild for a life very well spent. Today you can still visit the Tring Museum with its mainly stuffed Animal collections on display in the Victorian buildings that are looked after by the BMNH.
Rothschild collections were very large but there were many other grand private insect collections and it would be interesting to hear from other members here about their favourites, who made them and what they contained whether they are in still in private hands or have been placed in Museums.
Walter Rothschild around nine years old with his butterfly net.
Lord Walter Rothschild at work in his museum.
The three wise men.
A cabinet drawer of Ornithoptera chimaera from the Rothschild collections now in the BMNH. The specimens here are the original series collected by A.S. Meek in the Owen Stanley Range of New Guinea. A interesting setting style with the forelegs displayed under the antennae that is not seen nowadays.