The papers of Edward P. Van Duzee, entomologist and Curator of the Department of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, whose work focused primarily on Hemiptera. Includes correspondence, his autobiography, notebooks, pamphlets, drawings, photos, and other items.

Edward Van Duzee, eminent entomologist, was born in New York City on April 4, 1861, within a week of the firing on Fort Sumpter and the beginning of the U.S. Civil War. When he was a young child, his family left New York City for the quieter Buffalo, New York. His father, Dr. William Van Duzee, was an avid natural historian and scientist who encouraged both of his sons’ interests in science from an early age. He would take the boys on collecting as well hunting (for specimens) trips. He also allowed the boys full access to his “really extensive” library of scientific and natural history books (it occupied five large rooms). Although Mr. Van Duzee went to private schools, and had private tutors in Buffalo, he credits his real education to the time spent in the company of his father and his friends from the Buffalo Society of Natural Science, and in the field with both his father and other Society members. One of these Society members, Augustus R. Grote, a leading authority on moths, steered young Edward away from his early interests of botany, geology and astronomy, encouraging him to concentrate instead on one area of the natural world--insects. Mr. Grote, then President of the Society, suggested the Hemiptera, usually two-winged bugs that pierce their prey in order to extract their vital fluids (ex. Bedbugs and chinch bugs), for study. In 1895, at the age of 24, Mr. Van Duzee accepted a position as the Assistant Librarian at Grosvenor Library in Buffalo. Ten years later he would be promoted to Librarian, a post he held for seventeen years. During this twenty-seven year period, Mr. Van Duzee made numerous collecting trips in the American east and mid-west, Canada and even the Caribbean, in addition to the regular trips in and around Buffalo. Frequently, as his father had done, he would take his children, Edward and Mabel, along for local excursions. Late in 1912, Mr. Van Duzee, now age 51, relocated to the opposite side of the continent--San Diego, California. Here, he spent six months collecting local Hemiptera before accepting a position connected with the Scripps Institute in La Jolla. August of 1914 found Mr. Van Duzee being appointed as an instructor in Entomology at the University of California at Berkeley. During the two years he held this position, he completed the “Catalogue of the Hemiptera of America North of Mexico,” a project he had begun prior to leaving Buffalo. This more than 900-page catalog is widely recognized as a masterpiece of scholarly research and a publication indispensable to the study of Entomology. Undoubtedly, this publication was a contributing factor in Mr. Van Duzee’s June 1916 appointment as Curator of the Department of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, in June of 1916. During the first eight years of his Curatorial duties, Mr. Van Duzee made annual collecting trips, and in 1929 he visited Owens Valley, California (after 1929, his trips were shorter excursions, only a few days at a time). The specimens gathered on these trips and others increased the Academy’s collection from 30,000 to well over 1,000,000; including over 4,950 types. In the course of his entomological career, which began in 1885, Mr. Van Duzee produced over 165 publications, founded and edited the Pan-Pacific Entomologist (a newsletter), established 46 new genera, 906 new species or subspecies, and gave 23 new names to replace those preoccupied, all in the Hemiptera. Mr. Van Duzee passed away on June 2, 1940.

8 boxes, 2.33 cu.ft.

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