Varieties of insect, pinned to panel, c. 1860s - 1980s
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The Club was fascinated with insects and recieved donations of specimens from members and the public. These collections were created to help identify species and to monitor environmental changes.
The act of collecting insects, especially butterflies, was fashionable among the wealthy upper classes from as early as the 1600’s. Men would create ‘cabinets of curiosities’ to display their most precious artefacts like fossils, relics, archaeology, art, antiquities and insects. This box of insects varies in date from the 1860’s to the 1980’s. The box contains 96 specimens including a Damselfly, a large Water Bug, 30 Moths and 58 butterflies.
We know that some of the insects were donated by ‘a humble naturalist’, Mr. Thomas Shaw, a post-runner. See the following snippet from the Hexham Courant, 1877.
In addition to being collected in Berwickshire, some of these curiosities were gathered from South East Asia, Africa and Australia.
For more information about our collections, contact: collections@museumsnorthumberland.org.uk
