From Aristotle to Wunderkammer: The Development of Entomology and Insect Collections

This paper analyzes the development of insect classification and the shift from the realm of the amateur naturalist to professional scientific pursuit. While earlier historians of science have explored the field of entomology in specific eras, this paper explores continuity and change in the study of insects and natural history collections from the ancient world to the 20th century. Period entomology texts, modern entomology and history of science journals, entomological displays and preserved specimens, and histories of entomology reveal that, though entomology developed as a private pursuit for the wealthy, it came to represent an ideal starting place for numerous systems of classification and a piece of the pursuit of conservation undertaken by natural history museums