The Jansons a family of Entomologists.

[nomad]

This article is now hosted here : www.collector-secret.com/blog/history-entomology/jansons-family-entomologists

[Adam Cotton]

You have yet again surpassed yourself with this superb article. Thank you very much for all the hard work it must have taken to research and write it. These historical articles really are invaluable information for modern enthusiasts.

Adam.

[jhyatt]

Does anyone know what Wallace published in the Fortnightly Review that so flabbergasted Bates? Sounds interesting....

Regards,
jh

[jmg]

As I think I have already written, all these historiographical records are to be collected in a book!

[nomad]

Thank you Adam for you complement. I enjoyed researching the Janson family, they are a remarkable lot of entomologists. Their correspondence was especially interesting. It was strange sitting in the quiet of the magnificent library of the British Museum of Natural History with thousands of visitors elsewhere in the building enjoying their day out, it really is a busy place. The staff are really wonderful, they had to get the Janson letters from a unit outside the museum, all for free. As I sat in a comfortable chair trying to decipher, which is not always easy, the handwriting of the good and the great, I found that I was able to learn a good many new things about these entomologists from a bygone era. It nearly made me laugh out loud when the muti- millionaire Charles Rothschild wanted his fleas on approval and if they were lost he was not to be liable for the cost. Sitting in my warm surroundings and reading those collectors letters to Janson I was taken back to a time of unexplored jungles, the thrill of discovering many new butterflies and the real hardships they endured, it was certainly not a profession for the fainthearted. As for the Wallace articles mentioned by Frederick Bates in the Fortnightly Review I have asked a Wallace expert and if he knows will add it here. I do agree JMG these historical articles should be presented in a book, it would be a shame if they are lost, I write them in the hope that people might enjoy them and these entomologists should be remembered. This one article took many days to write and research, including three visits to the BMNH.  Although it was enjoyable one for the winter I think  I prefer to be out and about among the insects and am looking forward to the spring. 

[nomad]

Feb 11, 2019 14:29:36 GMT jhyatt said:

Does anyone know what Wallace published in the Fortnightly Review that so flabbergasted Bates? Sounds interesting....

Regards,
jh

Surprisingly the articles (article) were a defense of modern spiritualism    See here for Wallace's 1874 article in that magazine.

wallace-online.org/converted/pdf/1874_Defence_S243.1.pdf

[nomad]

 Meek had 99 specimens of O. alexandrae from his first trip to NE British New Guinea of which 35 pairs (77 specimens) and another 25 bred pairs from his second visit, most of which went to Janson. I wonder where they all went. I expect some are in the major museums around the globe. Rothschild's lot are in the BMNH along with perhaps a few  others. Manchester Museum has a couple of I think Meek pairs, but I wonder where else they went. I know at least one private collector has a pair, I believe one Meek pair sold at Drouot for 9000 euros, I wonder what Meek would have thought of that, of course he was disappointed at the prices Janson made for them, but that was probably because he collected far too many. They certainly must have been fairly common where Meek was, and he got so many by getting all the natives to look for them and I expect he did not make a dent in the population, all that primary virgin rainforest, and how different from today where poor old O. alexandrae has to hang on in patches of forest and in old gardens among all those oil plantations with the ever threat of those loggers.  Now I wonder where else Meek's O. alexandrae are, have you seen them    I remember on here that someone said they visited Janson's shop in the 80s and I think they said they saw specimens of O. alexandrae, but I cannot find that thread. Could there have been Meek's  O. alexandrae in that shop for well at least 80 years. 

It was a big surprise to me that Wallace was into spiritualism which is really just means the seance table, especially as he always wanted to be thought as a scientist. I notice the Wallace aficionados (I am one) that know about this, always keep quiet about that fact.  No wonder Bates was surprised, I cannot imagine Darwin sitting around the table getting in touch with the dead.  

Some more here wallaceletters.info/content/spiritualism

[exoticimports]

I don't know where those specific specimens went; undoubtedly, some are in private collections, some in BMNH, some in other museums, some gone.

I can say there are many O. Alex in private collections in USA. How many are Meek's? Dunno. I was talking to one guy 15 years ago who collected papered specimens, and never set them. He had a half dozen pair of O. Alex, plus all sorts of other rarities.

Chuck

[nomad]

 Jan. I don't think they are Meek specimens but it would be good to see all the data labels. Around 1913-1915 a government official starting paying the natives to collect O. alexandrae and sent them to several dealers in Europe. I know this because Meek was quite upset about the fact and wrote to Janson that the official had no right to do so and he had written to the Government house in Port Moresby to complain. I guess with Janson holding his stock of the butterfly, Meek thought more coming onto the market might lower the prices even further. It was Janson who tipped Meek off to the fact that other European dealers were starting to receive O. alexandrae. I forgot to say there are a pair of Meek's specimens in Oxford Museum, given to them by Rothschild, although somehow the female got badly damaged.