John Curtis (entomologist)
John Curtis ( born September 3, 1791 in Norwich, † October 6, 1862 in London) was a British entomologist and illustrator.
John Curtis learned in the workshop of his father Charles Curtis, the copper stinging. At the age of 16 he began an apprenticeship at a local law firm and devoted his leisure studies and drawings of insects. With the growth of his collection of insects he came upon the idea of trying to earn his money and went to London, where he was probably the first entomologist.
His greatest achievement was certainly the ongoing work of British Entomology - being illustrations and descriptions of the genera of insects found in Great Britain and Ireland, which is regarded as one of the best work on this subject in the 19th century. It appeared monthly from 1824 to 1839 as a subscription. Each issue contained four stitches with two pages of text they described. The complete work consists of 16 volumes dealing with 769 insects.
At the age Curtis suffered from dwindling eyesight and became blind end 1856 total. Many years after his death, the collection of original engravings was sold. The feared splitting of the collection was not performed since Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild acquired the entire collection. This later became the Natural History Museum inherited, where it is located today.
Curtis was a friend of the Irish entomologist Alexander Henry Haliday and the London entomologists Francis Walker.