Henry Edwards (entomologist)
Henry Edwards | |
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Born | Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, England | 27 August 1827
Died | 9 June 1891[2] New York City, US | (aged 63)
Occupations |
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Henry Edwards (27 August 1827 – 9 June 1891) was an English stage actor, writer and entomologist who gained fame in Australia, San Francisco and New York City for his theatre work.
Edwards was drawn to the theatre early in life, and he appeared in amateur productions in London. After sailing to Australia, Edwards appeared professionally in
In San Francisco, Edwards was a founding member of the Bohemian Club, and a gathering in Edwards' honour was the spark which began the club's traditional summer encampment at the Bohemian Grove.[3] As well, Edwards cemented his reputation as a preeminent stage actor and theatre manager. After writing a series of influential studies on Pacific Coast butterflies and moths he was elected life member of the California Academy of Sciences. Relocating to the East Coast, Edwards spent a brief time in Boston theatre. This led to a connection to Wallack's Theatre and further renown in New York City. There, Edwards edited three volumes of the journal Papilio and published a major work about the life of the butterfly.[2] His large collection of insect specimens served as the foundation of the American Museum of Natural History's butterfly and moth studies.
Edwards' wide-ranging studies and observations of insects brought him into contact with specimens not yet classified. Upon discovering previously unknown insects he would give them names, which led to a number of butterfly, moth and beetle species bearing "Hy. Edw." (for Henry Edwards) as an attribution.[4] From his theatre interests to entomology, Edwards carried forward an appreciation of Shakespeare—in the designation of new insect species he favoured female character names from Shakespeare's plays.
Early career
Henry Edwards was born to Hannah and Thomas Edwards (c. 1794–1857) at Brook House in
The first Australian stage appearance by Edwards was with
The renowned entomologist and collector William Sharp Macleay was sought out by Edwards whenever his stage appearances took him to Sydney. Beginning in 1858, Macleay mentored Edwards and encouraged him to search for more insect specimens when his theatre obligations allowed. Robust and adventuresome, Edwards occasionally trekked out into the wilds of Australia on the hunt for insects. While in Sydney, Edwards went up two times in a hot air balloon as a favour to George Coppin, narrowly avoiding severe injury or death in the first ascent.[7] Edwards' further travels included New Zealand,[8] Peru, Panama and Mexico in pursuit of insects and dramatic roles.[4]
San Francisco
In 1865, Edwards began a 12-year residence in San Francisco, California. At the
In 1868–1869 Edwards leased and managed the Metropolitan Theater,
Edwards was one of the founders and the first vice-president of the Bohemian Club, and served two terms as president, 1873–1875.[16] He hosted Shakespeare celebrations at the club in April 1873, 1875 and 1877, and a Bohemian Christmas celebration in December 1877: "The Feast of Reason and Flow of Soul".[17] Edwards became a director of the San Francisco Art Association, and spoke for Lotta Crabtree at the dedication of Lotta's Fountain in September 1875.[13]
Still very much interested in insects, Edwards spent his spare time at the
Though successful in San Francisco, Edwards decided to head for Boston and New York City to see if his career as an actor could benefit from appearances in the eastern United States.[23] On 29 June 1878, somewhat fewer than 100 of his Bohemian friends gathered in the woods near Taylorville, California (present-day Samuel P. Taylor State Park), for a night-time send-off party in Edwards' honour.[24] Bohemian Club historian Porter Garnett later wrote that the men at the "nocturnal picnic" were "provided with blankets to keep them warm and a generous supply of liquor for the same purpose".[3] Japanese lanterns were used for illumination and decoration. This festive gathering was repeated without Edwards by club members the next year, and every year thereafter, eventually evolving and expanding into the club's annual summer encampment at the Bohemian Grove,[3] famous (or infamous) for the casual commingling of top politicians and powerful captains of industry in attendance.[25]
Boston to New York
In late 1878, Edwards joined a theatre company in Boston, replacing another actor as "Schelm, Chief of Police" at a revival of the spectacle The Exiles at the
From Boston, Edwards moved to New York to stay for some ten years, performing on stage and participating in insect studies. He was active in the
Beginning in December 1880 under
Edwards appeared in early 1882 at
Gathering together under one cover his various short subjects, essays, and elegies to fallen friends, Edwards published in 1883 a wryly humorous book entitled A Mingled Yarn, including tales of travels and stories of his time in the Bohemian Club. Dedicated to the Bohemians, "with grateful memories, and feelings of affectionate regard,"
In 1886, Edwards was interviewed for The Theatre, a weekly magazine published in New York. Edwards was described as "unusually popular and genial", with a "charming English" wife and a Chinese servant named Charlie who "adores his employers" and had served them for 17 years.[36] The Edwards' home was observed to be comfortable but decorated with an astonishing collection of wonders from around the globe. Displayed amid the biological specimens, rugs, china, furniture, and valuable photographs were paintings executed by other actors, including ones by Edward Askew Sothern and Joseph Jefferson. Edwards showed letters he had received from a wide array of notables such as writers William Makepeace Thackeray, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope and naturalists Charles Darwin, Louis Agassiz and John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury. One floor of the residence was seen to be wholly devoted to the entomologist's collection of specimens, which Edwards said was insured for $17,000,[36] $576,000 in current value. Surrounded by his exotic possessions and "in the most perfect congeniality with his wife", Edwards was reported to be the host of a "cultivated home".[36]
Last years
Two years after Alfred, Lord Tennyson, completed his Idylls of the King, a poetic telling of the King Arthur legend, Edwards and George Parsons Lathrop adapted it to the stage as a drama in four acts. The result was Elaine, a story of young love between Elaine of Astolat and Lancelot, fashioned with "flower-like fragility" and "winning touches of tenderness".[37] Its first public presentation was a staged "author's reading" at Madison Square Theatre on 28 April 1887, at which Edwards played the part of Elaine's father, Lord Astolat.[38] Months later it was presented by the company of A. M. Palmer, without Edwards in the cast, opening on 6 December 1887, at the same venue. The production proved both popular and profitable for Lathrop and Edwards.[39] Annie Russell's Elaine was admired for her "sweet simplicity and pathos which captured nearly every heart".[40] After a successful six-week New York run, Palmer took Elaine on the road.[37][39]
Actors associated with Wallack's Theatre announced to the public that beginning in February 1888 a final series of old comedies would be revived, after which the company would be disbanded.
A testimonial production of
The next year, Edwards published a significant treatise entitled Bibliographic Catalogue of the Described Transformation of North American Lepidoptera.
To regain his strength, Edwards and his wife took a carriage to a rustic cottage refuge in Arkville in the
Legacy
After his death, Edwards' collection of 300,000 insect specimens,[2] one of the largest in the United States, was bought by his friends for $15,000[44] for the financial benefit of his widow, and donated to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) as the cornerstone of their collection.[4] Mrs. Harry Edwards also donated some of his other specimens, including two eggs of the order Rajiformes, the true rays.[45] Museum trustees purchased the 500 volumes of entomology texts and 1,200 pamphlets[46] owned by Edwards to form the "Harry Edwards Entomological Library", one of the handful of important book acquisitions made by the AMNH to expand their library in its early years.[47] William Schaus, a student that Edwards guided and encouraged, but never met in person,[5] went on to further define moth and butterfly characteristics in a large body of published work.[4]
The "Hy. Edw." designation appended to some butterfly species names indicates first description by Henry Edwards. This is not to be confused with the "Edw." designation which stands for
Birth dates
The birth date that Edwards gave as his own varied depending on the time and place he was asked. Parish records show he was christened in England on 14 September 1827, and corroborating this date he gave his age as 25 in June 1853 when he first arrived in Australia.
See also
References
- Notes
- ^ Souvenir card given to Charles Warren Stoddard showing Edwards as an actor with the California Theatre Stock Company. The inscription reads:
"To my valued friend Chas. W. Stoddard -
with my most affectionate regards
San Francisco. Dec 9, 1871 Hy. Edwards." - ^ .
- ^ a b c Garnett, 1908, p. 7.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Remington, J. E. (January 1948). "Henry Edwards (1830–1891)" (PDF). The Lepidopterists' News. II (1): 7. Retrieved 23 July 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g Brown-May and May 1997
- ^ a b c d e f Lawrence, W. J. (1892). "Chapter X: Australia. 1857–1861". The life of Gustavus Vaughan Brooke, tragedian. Belfast: W. & G. Baird. pp. 117, 196–204, 234.
- ^ Edwards, Henry (1883). "Two Balloon Voyages". A Mingled Yarn. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 131–38.
- ^ a b The Transactions of the Entomological Society of London. Royal Entomological Society of London. 1891. pp. li–ii.
- ^ a b c d United States Census, 1870. San Francisco, 2d Precinct, 12th Ward, page 38. 14 June 1870.
- ^ a b c d e f "Obituary: Henry Edwards, Comedian". The New York Times. 10 June 1891. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ Knight, Joseph (September 2004). "Avonia Jones". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ Lawrence, 1892, pp. 274–77.
- ^ a b c Shuck, Oscar T. (1897). Historical Abstract of San Francisco. San Francisco: Oscar T. Shuck. p. 84. Retrieved 8 January 2010.
- ^ Hendley, Alvis (2004). "Landmark 86: Site of The California Theatre". California Historical Landmarks in San Francisco. NoeHill in San Francisco. Retrieved 31 December 2009.
- ^ Leman, Walter M. (1886). Memories of an Old Actor. San Francisco: H. S. Crocker. pp. 359–60.
- ^ Bohemian Club (1904). Constitution, By-laws, and Rules, Officers, Committees, and Members, pp. 19–20, 69.
- ^ Garnett, 1908, p. 120.
- ^ Badè, William Frederic (1924). The Life and Letters of John Muir. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 262–64. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ^ Holland, William Jacob (1903). The Moth Book. New York: Doubleday, Page & company. p. 249.
- ^ Calhoun, John V. (2015). "Butterflies collected by George R. Crotch in N America in 1873, with notes on the identity of Pamphila manitoba and a type locality clarification for Argynnis rhodope" (PDF). News of the Lepidopterists' Society. 57: 135–43.
- ^ Edwards, Henry (1875). "A Tribute to George Robert Crotch". Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. California Academy of Sciences: 332.
- ^ "Obituary Notice: Henry Edwards". Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. California Academy of Sciences: 367. 1891.
- ^ "The New Jinks and Old Jinks: Midnight Programmes in the Forest". The San Francisco Call. San Francisco. 12 July 1896. Retrieved 25 January 2010.
- ^ Garnett, 1908, p. 6.
- Spy Magazine, pp. 59–76. Hosted by University of California, Santa Cruz, Sociology Department, Professor G. William Domhoff. Retrieved 15 January 2010.
- ^ Tompkins, 1908, p. 258.
- ^ Tompkins, 1908, p. 266.
- ^ United States Census, 1880. Boston, Massachusetts, Enumeration District 772, Supervisor's District 60, page 29. 8 June 1880.
- ^ Edwards, Henry (January 1884). "To Our Subscribers". Papilio. New York Entomological Club: 104.
- ^ ISBN 0-7864-2321-8.
- ^ Kerr, Frederick (1930). Recollections of a Defective Memory. London: Thornton Butterworth. p. 40.
- ^ Actors' Fund of America (1892). Souvenir and programme of the Actors' Fund Fair, Madison Square Garden, May 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 1892. New York: U. W. Pratt. pp. 63, 71.
- ^ King1, Moses (1893). Kings Handbook of New York (2 ed.). Boston. pp. 592–93. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Edwards, Henry (1883). "Dedication". A Mingled Yarn. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 3.
- ^ Pylodet, L.; Augusta Harriet (Garrigue) Leypoldt (May 1883). "A Mingled Yarn: Extracts from N.Y. Tribune, April 3". Literary News. IV (5). New York: F. Leypoldt: 155.
- ^ a b c Harvier, Evelyn (30 August 1886). "Harry Edwards at Home". The Theatre. 1 (24). New York: Theatre Publishing: 539–40.
- ^ a b Montgomery, George Edgar (1889). "Mr. Palmer's Productions". In Fuller, Edward (ed.). The Dramatic Year 1887–1888. Boston: Ticknor and Company. pp. 72–74.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "The Amusement Season; Dramatic and Musical. Elaine on the stage". The New York Times. 29 April 1887. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ^ a b Clapp, John B.; Edwin F. Edgett (1902). Plays of the Present. New York: The Dunlap Society. p. 97.
- ^ Welch, Deshler (1888). The Theatre. Vol. III. New York: Theatre Publishing Company. p. 148.
- ^ a b c Montgomery, George Edgar (1889). "The Last Year of 'Wallack's'". In Fuller, Edward (ed.). The Dramatic Year 1887–1888. Boston: Ticknor and Company. p. 62.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Brown, Thomas Allston (1903). A history of the New York stage from the first performance in 1732 to 1901. Vol. 3. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. pp. 325–28. Retrieved 24 January 2010.
- ^ Hutton, Laurence (1889). "Preface". In Lester Wallack (ed.). Memories of Fifty Years. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. viii.
- ^ "Rare Butterflies and Moths.; Harry Edwards's Collection Will Soon Be on Exhibition". The New York Times. 10 April 1892. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ^ "Donations". Annual Report of the American Museum of Natural History. 20–24. American Museum of Natural History. 1892.
- ^ Osborn, Henry Fairfield (1911). The American Museum of Natural History: its origin, its history, the growth of its departments to December 31, 1909. Chicago: Irving Press. p. 121.
- ^ Department of Library Services (1999). "Library History". About the Library. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
- ^ Edwards, Henry (19 February 1881). "New Genera and Species of North American Noctuidae". Papilio. 1 (2). New York: New York Entomological Club: 19–20.
- ^ Edwards, Henry (November 1881). "New Genera and Species of the Family Aegeridae". Papilio. 1 (10). New York: New York Entomological Club: 190.
- ^ Oehlke, Bill. "Catocala: Classification and Common Names". The Catocala Website. Retrieved 23 July 2009.
- ^ Silkmoths. Catocala ophelia. Archived 22 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 8 January 2010.
- ^ Silkmoths. Catocala hermia. Archived 22 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 8 January 2010.
- ^ Silkmoths. Catocala desdemona. Archived 22 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 8 January 2010.
- Bibliography
- Beutenmuller, William (December 1891). "List of Writings of the Late Henry Edwards". The Canadian Entomologist. XXIII (12). London: 259–67. S2CID 86452389.
- Brown-May, Andrew; Tom W. May (June 1997). "'A Mingled Yarn': Henry Edwards, Thespian and Naturalist, in the Austral Land of Plenty, 1853–1866". Historical Records of Australian Science. 11 (3): 407–18. .
- Garnett, Porter (1908). The Bohemian Jinks: A Treatise. San Francisco: The Bohemian Club.
- Tompkins, Eugene; Quincy Kilby (1908). The history of the Boston Theatre, 1854–1901. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
External links
- Harry Edwards life mask, archived page