Midnight in the Entomology Collection at Drexel University in Philadelphia

It was almost midnight, for me, when the live streaming presentation began on 12 August 2021. I, along with many others, had special access to the Entomology Collection at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia, America, thanks to Atlas Obscura. Entomology is the study of insects.

The Academy of Natural Sciences is America’s oldest natural history museum. Established in 1812, it is 209 years old. It has a collection of 19 million specimens. Jennifer Sontchi and Jon Gelhaus were showing us a small portion of the collection and providing us with a wealth of insect information.

Jennifer Sontchi is Senior Director of Exhibits and Public Spaces at The Academy of Natural Sciences and has been working at the ANS since 2008. Jon Gelhaus is Curator of Entomology at the ANS, where he has worked since 1990. He looks after 4 million insect specimens, representing about 100,000 species of insects, mainly from North America, but also across the globe. Since 2012, he has also been Professor in the Biodiversity, Earth and Environmental Science department where he teaches courses in Conservation Biology, Entomology, and Plant and Animal Identification.

One of the collections shown during the presentation was the Titian Peale Butterfly Collection. Titian Ramsay Peale (1799-1885) was an American ornithologist, entomologist, photographer, scientific illustrator, and explorer. Titian Peale donated his Butterfly Collection to the ANS, which was received in 1899, with specimens from Central America, South America, East Africa, and Southeast Asia.

We also saw a collection of crane flies, stick insects, grasshoppers, and micro-moths.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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