Making Entomologists

The diverse array of nineteenth-century British entomologists is vividly brought to life in Matthew Wale’s lively account. The quirky, the cantankerous, the liberal, the gentlemanly, the mercenary—as well as class and gender differences—are exhibited through the revealing lens of the scientific periodical. Wale convincingly challenges a narrative of professionalization by showing how periodicals both reflected and shaped the key entomological practices that defined the ‘imagined communities’ they aimed to establish.

Matthew Wale provides wonderfully fresh insight into vernacular science by deftly combining print history with investigations into the many activities of entomological enthusiasts during the Victorian period. Popular periodicals produced by editors such as Edward Newman and Henry Stainton created a lively hub for practitioners from all walks of life. Wale shows how this community of eager readers can be explored for greater historical understanding of the forms of expertise and participation, as well as the emergence of subtle social divisions that would eventually be expressed in the divide between amateurs and the professional world of museums.

Wale has told original, nuanced, and exciting stories about little-understood scientific publications and made a serious contribution to an important body of work on nineteenth-century scientific periodicals and artisan scientific communities. As this painstaking study of the equally painstaking work of nineteenth-century entomologists beautifully demonstrates, it is so often from careful research, detailed attention, and fine-grained analysis that the biggest insights come to emerge. Wale’s contribution deserves much quicker recognition than many of his protagonists enjoyed.

Rich in detailed archival research, Matthew Wale’s important book conducts a lively survey of a wide selection of very dissimilar periodicals, all devoted to the single science of entomology.