The following is a series of photographs of William Collinson's collection of butterflies and moths taken from 1946-71 and so far as I can tell all were taken from within the borough of Calderdale. The collection was previously housed by the Halifax Scientific Society at the old central library at Northgate, Halifax. Since it's closure however the collection is now being temporarily housed at a private residence at Savile Park with the aim for it be re-located to a museum as close to Calderdale as possible. So I thought now would be as good a time as any to document it in case it leaves the borough for good.
Collinson was a long standing member of the Halifax Scientific Society for which he authored a book - The Butterflies and Moths of Halifax and District. The collection is annotated with text from that book giving brief notes on status and distribution.
A newspaper cutting of the chap himself. He retired to the New Forest where he no doubt spent the rest of his days studying butterflies and moths........
UPDATE MAY 20TH 2022
After around three years in its temporary residence at Savile Park disaster struck when pests managed to find a way in to the drawers. The now ill-fitting glass lids have the tiniest of gaps beneath allowing carpet beetles to enter. The worst affected specimens have had their entire bodies devoured leaving behind just a scattering of wings.
They seem to leave behind the moth scales but eat the rest of the head, thorax, abdomen and even some of the wing membrane.
Despite efforts to introduce a chemical control the beetle larvae continued to survive as can be seen by the many shed skins in this photo.
UPDATE 2023
Fast forward to February 2023 and HSS member Anthony Arak of Barkisland has bravely stepped in to the breach and taken on restoring and re-housing the collection. He has purchased a high quality, air and insect proof cabinet from Poland, the workmanship of which is of a high standard.
Some groups such as the swifts and pugs have fared badly and have almost totally been destroyed, but remarkably just 14 species overall have been lost to the beetles.
All the original data labels and pins have been used where ever possible and a list has been drawn up for the missing specimens so the collection may be sympathetically restored in the future - Anthony is capable of setting moths to a museum standard as well!
As you can see from the photos below he has achieved a remarkable result, it looks every bit as good as the day Bill Collinson first created it.
1 comment:
Well done for documenting this collection on line Charlie, and for publicising the Halifax Scientific Society.
Just pointing out that we at the HSS offered this collection to the Halifax (Calderdale) Museums and Galleries, but they declined to take them into their care. The answer to our offer was that they were adding nothing of Natural History interest to their collections.
Though the HSS no longer approves of this kind of moth/butterfly collecting, this is a unique historical artefact and we believe it important that it is well preserved. A small party of HSS Council members visited the Leeds Museum Collections building and we found it a very well set up purpose built new building in the south of Leeds. Appointments can be made via the friendly staff to visit it. Thanks to Laurence our Membership Secretary for organising the visit and providing transport, (pre Covid 19.)
Post a Comment