The professional collector Richard Weaver.
Jun 8, 2018 11:28:25 GMT
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Post by nomad on Jun 8, 2018 11:28:25 GMT
The professional collector Richard Weaver.
" We believe that Mr Weaver was formerly a shoemaker, but abandoned that sedentary pursuit for a more active life in collecting insects. His captures in Scotland, little more than ten years ago, mark an era in the entomology of this country, and no doubt his success has led, and is still leading, others to abandon a settled calling for a more roving style of life." H.T. Stainton. Obituary in the Entomologists Weekly Intelligencer, January 1858.
Richard Weaver (1783 -1857) was one of the most industrious collectors of British insects that this country has ever known. During his expeditions to Scotland and elsewhere he added many insects to the British list , including a number that were new to science, and some of these will be discussed in forthcoming articles. There is no known portrait of Weaver.
To British entomologists, Weaver is usually only known for the capture of a non-native butterfly in Britain, the Weaver's Fritillary, Boloria dia. Salmon (2000) in the Aurelian Legacy gave a short account of Weaver in his biographical British entomologist's hall of fame and Allan (1943) who detailed the unscrupulous 19th century dealers exonerated Weaver of any dishonesty regarding B. dia.
During a period of ill heath in 1818, a doctor told Weaver to take long walks in the countryside surrounding Birmingham where he lived, which was then just a small provincial market town. Weaver's interest in entomology began around this time and he decided that he would leave the drudgery of the work of a cobbler and become a professional collector. Nothing seems to be recorded about Weaver's personal life except that he came from humble dwellings and had limited means. In a letter to James Charles Dale in 1841, Weaver who was then living at Worcester, mentioned that he was a native of that town. In 1842 he returned to Birmingham and seems from then on to have resided in the centre of that town at Bromsgrove Street and later at various addresses in Pershore Street.
Weaver was also keen on ornithology, learning taxidermy and mounting his own specimens. He occasionally seems to have traded insects for certain bird skins, he was very keen to obtain. In 1825, Weaver who was then living at Number 28 Wearman Street in Birmingham, wrote to J. C. Dale for the first time on November 1 of that year. Dale and John Curtis had been on a collecting tour of Scotland in the summer of 1825, and Weaver was keen to add a pair of Erebia aethiops to his collection from the series they had captured, as it was then considered a rarity; in his letter he added his own price list of specimens he had for sale. Weaver's correspondence with Dale continued intermittently until shortly before his own death in 1857. Over this period Dale bought or exchanged many insects with Weaver.
The Museum.
As Weaver built up his collections of insect and birds, in spite of his limited means he had the novel idea of opening a museum. His first museum which he began around 1828 was a small affair in premises at where he was staying at 38 New Street and as his collections grew, he moved to the Associate Artists Institution rooms in Temple Street. With patronage from local business men, gentry and nobility, he was able to buy all the necessary glass cases and add minerals and shells to his collections. J. Wallace wrote of Weaver's museum in the Zoologist (1832) " It may be gratifying to your scientific readers, and to the lovers of science generally, to learn that a museum has sprung up in the heart of the kingdom, which may vie in extent and splendour with any provincial collection in the world. The large room in which the collection is now opened to the public is 50ft long, by 25ft wide, lofty in proportion, and lighted from above by five lights on each side, inclining at such an angle as to exhibit pictures to the greatest advantage, and therefore in the highest degree adapted for the purposes of a museum of natural history. The cases of British insects are ranged down the centre of the room (about 5,000 different species) forming the appearance of a desk, inclining each way in such a manner to meet the eye ; upwards of twenty large cases of foreign insects are similarly placed across each end, and on one of the sides ; and more than thirty cases of minerals and shells fill the other side; the cases of birds occupying the walls". If it was not for the account by Wallace, we would know little of Weaver's museum he called the " Museum of Natural History Curiosities" as there are no other written contemporary accounts. When Weaver's museum closed is not known but it seems certainly by 1841, as he was then residing in Worcester and in 1843, in a letter to Dale, he was writing of his late museum.
The Reverend William Thomas Bree (1786-1863) a well know naturalist, visited Weaver and his museum and published an article in the Zoologist (1832) with his own figures of a few of the special butterflies he saw there. It was Bree who first noted an unusual Fritillary in the collection, which later was identified as Boloria dia, a butterfly that would cause a lot of controversy among British entomologists. Weaver had captured an extreme melanic aberration in Sutton Park in 1827 that Stephens in his illustrations (1828) had identified as Argynnis adippe and which Bree thought due to the presence of a prevailing green tint of the underside wings was perhaps a specimen of Argynnis aglaja. Another fine aberration of A. aglaja in the Weaver collection was very unusual with elongated silver spots on the upper and lower hindwing. It was taken by Weaver in the neighbourhood of York.
Argynnis adippe aberration, Weaver collection. Illustrated by W. T. Bree. Zoologist 1832.
Argynnis aglaja aberration, Weaver collection. Illustrated by W. T. Bree. Zoologist 1832.
Bree also drew attention to specimens that Weaver had received from the Himalayas that were allied to our native species, one was Vanessa indica Herbst, 1794 a butterfly which was then very rare in collections. Weaver also had been sent specimens of Papilio machaon from the Himalayas. Ranged among Weaver's British insects were specimens of Colias europome which Bree writes " No doubt, are of foreign origin, palmed upon him as indigenous ; he has no knowledge of the place or time of capture". Colias europome = Colias palaeno europome is another of the many butterflies that certain dealers introduced as British, probably obtaining their specimens from Germany.
Vanessa indica. Weaver collection. Illustrated by W.T. Bree in the Zoologist 1832.
Bree finished his article by observing that " Mr Weaver deserves well of the scientific world and the public at large ; and I sincerely hope that this enterprising spirit will meet with its due reward." Newman (1857) described a remarkable melanic variety of Boloria euphrosyne that Weaver had previously captured.
Weaver the last Letters to J.C. Dale, collections and Death.
Weaver's last three letters to Dale were written in October 1857, just a few weeks before he died. In a letter written on October 5 he writes " Sir I would have written before but I have been unwell. I am but poorly now, I have been to Exeter, Plymouth and Burnham (*Dale wrote above the latter Appledore Sands) at the latter place I examined a large bed of of Euphorbia but I found no larva, only a few stellatarum (*Macroglossum) on the Yellow Bedstraw. I was at Torquay, the fact was I wanted to find a comfortable spot to winter as I cannot now bare the cold winds but I was afraid of the cost and that I may find nothing to take up my time." The rest of the letter is a list of insects that Dale might be interested in purchasing. William Raddon many years previously had claimed that he had found the larvae of Hyles euphorbiae on the sand dunes at Appedore, and it was later generally believed he had bred them from imported larvae and for which Weaver in 1857 was searching for in vain. * My italics.
T. Campbell, wrote in the Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer January 1858, " Sir, - Not having seen the death of Mr Richard Weaver noticed in your periodical, I suppose that the knowledge of that lamented event has not yet reached you. He died on the 11th of December, at the advanced age of seventy-four, after, I believe, a short illness, but he had long been subject to a severe asthma. He left very valuable collections of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, which I expect will now be dispersed. Hoping you will inform your readers of this event." Stainton the editor of the Intelligencer placed a short note in the March 13, 1858 issue that Richard Weaver's collection would shortly be sold and in the following issue there was a notice of the sale from Weaver's last place of residence.
Advert announcing the sale of the Weaver collection. Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer, March 20, 1857.
F.R. Rowley, E. Howarth and W.R. Butterfield writing of the Birmingham Museum collections in the Museums Journal for 1955 recorded that " The roots of the Department of Natural History seem to lie in the collections amassed during the earlier years of the last century by two Birmingham naturalists. One of these, Richard Weaver, was a boot maker, who in 1841 became a taxidermist and established his workshop in Bromsgrove Street. His collections were housed in Temple Street, and after his death in 1851 were purchased by Queen's College for the sum of £1,500. ". There are a number of facts wrong in their article, Weaver was a taxidermist long before 1841, almost certainly by 1827, as he was preparing bird specimens for his museum and he died in 1857 not 1851.
Queen's college in Birmingham was established by the surgeon William Sands Cox (1802 -1875) and had both medical and scientific departments. Later the two departments split and Maston Science College was established which became University of Birmingham in 1900. Birmingham museums certainly have some of Weaver's bird specimens. On their web page Birmingham Museums have a notice regarding inquiries about their natural history specimens, stating these have been suspended "Birmingham Museums are unable to provide any details in the long term future, regarding requests for information on their Natural History collections" ; certainly a very strange situation regarding their legacy of over 200,000 specimens and to research workers.
According to Brown (1980) Weavers insect collections which were bought by the Reverend J. Johnston of Huddersfield in 1861. Johnson's collection was bought by Benjamin Cooke, a Liverpool dealer for £63 at the J.C. Stevens auction house in 1863. Benjamin Cooke's private collection was sold at Stevens on June 19, 1883.
References.
Allan. P.B.M. (1943) Talking of moths.
Bree W.T. (1832) Notice on some singular varieties of Papilionidae in Mr Weaver's Museum Birmingham. Magazine of natural history, vol 5, pp 749-753.
Brown S.C.S. (1980) Unpublished Manuscripts. Chapter : Collections mentioned by Dale.
Campbell T. (1858) Death of Richard Weaver. Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer vol 3-4 p, 117.
Newman E. (1858) Remarkable Variety of Argynnis Euphrosyne. Zoologist, vol 16, p 5923.
Rowley F.R. Howarth E. and Butterfield W.R. (1955) The Museums Journal.
Stainton H.T. (1858) Richard Weaver, Brief Obituary. The Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer, vol 3-4, p, 128.
Stephens J. F. (1828) Illustrations of British entomology, vol 1.
Wallace. A.J. (1832) Weaver's Museum of Natural History in Birmingham. A Magazine of Natural History, vol 5, pp 546-548
Weaver. R. Letters 1825-1857 to Charles James Dale.
Next. In search of Erebia epiphron Mnemon Haworth 1812.
" We believe that Mr Weaver was formerly a shoemaker, but abandoned that sedentary pursuit for a more active life in collecting insects. His captures in Scotland, little more than ten years ago, mark an era in the entomology of this country, and no doubt his success has led, and is still leading, others to abandon a settled calling for a more roving style of life." H.T. Stainton. Obituary in the Entomologists Weekly Intelligencer, January 1858.
Richard Weaver (1783 -1857) was one of the most industrious collectors of British insects that this country has ever known. During his expeditions to Scotland and elsewhere he added many insects to the British list , including a number that were new to science, and some of these will be discussed in forthcoming articles. There is no known portrait of Weaver.
To British entomologists, Weaver is usually only known for the capture of a non-native butterfly in Britain, the Weaver's Fritillary, Boloria dia. Salmon (2000) in the Aurelian Legacy gave a short account of Weaver in his biographical British entomologist's hall of fame and Allan (1943) who detailed the unscrupulous 19th century dealers exonerated Weaver of any dishonesty regarding B. dia.
During a period of ill heath in 1818, a doctor told Weaver to take long walks in the countryside surrounding Birmingham where he lived, which was then just a small provincial market town. Weaver's interest in entomology began around this time and he decided that he would leave the drudgery of the work of a cobbler and become a professional collector. Nothing seems to be recorded about Weaver's personal life except that he came from humble dwellings and had limited means. In a letter to James Charles Dale in 1841, Weaver who was then living at Worcester, mentioned that he was a native of that town. In 1842 he returned to Birmingham and seems from then on to have resided in the centre of that town at Bromsgrove Street and later at various addresses in Pershore Street.
Weaver was also keen on ornithology, learning taxidermy and mounting his own specimens. He occasionally seems to have traded insects for certain bird skins, he was very keen to obtain. In 1825, Weaver who was then living at Number 28 Wearman Street in Birmingham, wrote to J. C. Dale for the first time on November 1 of that year. Dale and John Curtis had been on a collecting tour of Scotland in the summer of 1825, and Weaver was keen to add a pair of Erebia aethiops to his collection from the series they had captured, as it was then considered a rarity; in his letter he added his own price list of specimens he had for sale. Weaver's correspondence with Dale continued intermittently until shortly before his own death in 1857. Over this period Dale bought or exchanged many insects with Weaver.
The Museum.
As Weaver built up his collections of insect and birds, in spite of his limited means he had the novel idea of opening a museum. His first museum which he began around 1828 was a small affair in premises at where he was staying at 38 New Street and as his collections grew, he moved to the Associate Artists Institution rooms in Temple Street. With patronage from local business men, gentry and nobility, he was able to buy all the necessary glass cases and add minerals and shells to his collections. J. Wallace wrote of Weaver's museum in the Zoologist (1832) " It may be gratifying to your scientific readers, and to the lovers of science generally, to learn that a museum has sprung up in the heart of the kingdom, which may vie in extent and splendour with any provincial collection in the world. The large room in which the collection is now opened to the public is 50ft long, by 25ft wide, lofty in proportion, and lighted from above by five lights on each side, inclining at such an angle as to exhibit pictures to the greatest advantage, and therefore in the highest degree adapted for the purposes of a museum of natural history. The cases of British insects are ranged down the centre of the room (about 5,000 different species) forming the appearance of a desk, inclining each way in such a manner to meet the eye ; upwards of twenty large cases of foreign insects are similarly placed across each end, and on one of the sides ; and more than thirty cases of minerals and shells fill the other side; the cases of birds occupying the walls". If it was not for the account by Wallace, we would know little of Weaver's museum he called the " Museum of Natural History Curiosities" as there are no other written contemporary accounts. When Weaver's museum closed is not known but it seems certainly by 1841, as he was then residing in Worcester and in 1843, in a letter to Dale, he was writing of his late museum.
The Reverend William Thomas Bree (1786-1863) a well know naturalist, visited Weaver and his museum and published an article in the Zoologist (1832) with his own figures of a few of the special butterflies he saw there. It was Bree who first noted an unusual Fritillary in the collection, which later was identified as Boloria dia, a butterfly that would cause a lot of controversy among British entomologists. Weaver had captured an extreme melanic aberration in Sutton Park in 1827 that Stephens in his illustrations (1828) had identified as Argynnis adippe and which Bree thought due to the presence of a prevailing green tint of the underside wings was perhaps a specimen of Argynnis aglaja. Another fine aberration of A. aglaja in the Weaver collection was very unusual with elongated silver spots on the upper and lower hindwing. It was taken by Weaver in the neighbourhood of York.
Argynnis adippe aberration, Weaver collection. Illustrated by W. T. Bree. Zoologist 1832.
Argynnis aglaja aberration, Weaver collection. Illustrated by W. T. Bree. Zoologist 1832.
Bree also drew attention to specimens that Weaver had received from the Himalayas that were allied to our native species, one was Vanessa indica Herbst, 1794 a butterfly which was then very rare in collections. Weaver also had been sent specimens of Papilio machaon from the Himalayas. Ranged among Weaver's British insects were specimens of Colias europome which Bree writes " No doubt, are of foreign origin, palmed upon him as indigenous ; he has no knowledge of the place or time of capture". Colias europome = Colias palaeno europome is another of the many butterflies that certain dealers introduced as British, probably obtaining their specimens from Germany.
Vanessa indica. Weaver collection. Illustrated by W.T. Bree in the Zoologist 1832.
Bree finished his article by observing that " Mr Weaver deserves well of the scientific world and the public at large ; and I sincerely hope that this enterprising spirit will meet with its due reward." Newman (1857) described a remarkable melanic variety of Boloria euphrosyne that Weaver had previously captured.
Weaver the last Letters to J.C. Dale, collections and Death.
Weaver's last three letters to Dale were written in October 1857, just a few weeks before he died. In a letter written on October 5 he writes " Sir I would have written before but I have been unwell. I am but poorly now, I have been to Exeter, Plymouth and Burnham (*Dale wrote above the latter Appledore Sands) at the latter place I examined a large bed of of Euphorbia but I found no larva, only a few stellatarum (*Macroglossum) on the Yellow Bedstraw. I was at Torquay, the fact was I wanted to find a comfortable spot to winter as I cannot now bare the cold winds but I was afraid of the cost and that I may find nothing to take up my time." The rest of the letter is a list of insects that Dale might be interested in purchasing. William Raddon many years previously had claimed that he had found the larvae of Hyles euphorbiae on the sand dunes at Appedore, and it was later generally believed he had bred them from imported larvae and for which Weaver in 1857 was searching for in vain. * My italics.
T. Campbell, wrote in the Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer January 1858, " Sir, - Not having seen the death of Mr Richard Weaver noticed in your periodical, I suppose that the knowledge of that lamented event has not yet reached you. He died on the 11th of December, at the advanced age of seventy-four, after, I believe, a short illness, but he had long been subject to a severe asthma. He left very valuable collections of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, which I expect will now be dispersed. Hoping you will inform your readers of this event." Stainton the editor of the Intelligencer placed a short note in the March 13, 1858 issue that Richard Weaver's collection would shortly be sold and in the following issue there was a notice of the sale from Weaver's last place of residence.
Advert announcing the sale of the Weaver collection. Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer, March 20, 1857.
F.R. Rowley, E. Howarth and W.R. Butterfield writing of the Birmingham Museum collections in the Museums Journal for 1955 recorded that " The roots of the Department of Natural History seem to lie in the collections amassed during the earlier years of the last century by two Birmingham naturalists. One of these, Richard Weaver, was a boot maker, who in 1841 became a taxidermist and established his workshop in Bromsgrove Street. His collections were housed in Temple Street, and after his death in 1851 were purchased by Queen's College for the sum of £1,500. ". There are a number of facts wrong in their article, Weaver was a taxidermist long before 1841, almost certainly by 1827, as he was preparing bird specimens for his museum and he died in 1857 not 1851.
Queen's college in Birmingham was established by the surgeon William Sands Cox (1802 -1875) and had both medical and scientific departments. Later the two departments split and Maston Science College was established which became University of Birmingham in 1900. Birmingham museums certainly have some of Weaver's bird specimens. On their web page Birmingham Museums have a notice regarding inquiries about their natural history specimens, stating these have been suspended "Birmingham Museums are unable to provide any details in the long term future, regarding requests for information on their Natural History collections" ; certainly a very strange situation regarding their legacy of over 200,000 specimens and to research workers.
According to Brown (1980) Weavers insect collections which were bought by the Reverend J. Johnston of Huddersfield in 1861. Johnson's collection was bought by Benjamin Cooke, a Liverpool dealer for £63 at the J.C. Stevens auction house in 1863. Benjamin Cooke's private collection was sold at Stevens on June 19, 1883.
References.
Allan. P.B.M. (1943) Talking of moths.
Bree W.T. (1832) Notice on some singular varieties of Papilionidae in Mr Weaver's Museum Birmingham. Magazine of natural history, vol 5, pp 749-753.
Brown S.C.S. (1980) Unpublished Manuscripts. Chapter : Collections mentioned by Dale.
Campbell T. (1858) Death of Richard Weaver. Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer vol 3-4 p, 117.
Newman E. (1858) Remarkable Variety of Argynnis Euphrosyne. Zoologist, vol 16, p 5923.
Rowley F.R. Howarth E. and Butterfield W.R. (1955) The Museums Journal.
Stainton H.T. (1858) Richard Weaver, Brief Obituary. The Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer, vol 3-4, p, 128.
Stephens J. F. (1828) Illustrations of British entomology, vol 1.
Wallace. A.J. (1832) Weaver's Museum of Natural History in Birmingham. A Magazine of Natural History, vol 5, pp 546-548
Weaver. R. Letters 1825-1857 to Charles James Dale.
Next. In search of Erebia epiphron Mnemon Haworth 1812.