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Summary:

With 32 pages of full-color inserts and black-and-white illustrations throughout. From one of our most highly regarded historians, here is an original and engrossing chronicle of nineteenth-century America's infatuation with butterflies, and the story of the naturalists who unveiled the mysteries of their existence. A product of William Leach's lifelong love of butterflies, this engaging and elegantly illustrated history shows how Americans from all walks of life passionately pursued butterflies, and how through their discoveries and observations they transformed the character of natural history. Leach focuses on the correspondence and scientific writings of half a dozen pioneering lepidopterists who traveled across the country and throughout the world, collecting and studying unknown and exotic species. In a book as full of life as the subjects themselves and foregrounding a collecting culture now on the brink of vanishing, Leach reveals how the beauty of butterflies led Americans into a deeper understanding of the natural world. He shows, too, that the country's enthusiasm for butterflies occurred at the very moment that another form of beauty'the technological and industrial objects being displayed at world's fairs and commercial shows'was emerging, and that Americans' attraction to this new beauty would eventually, and at great cost, take precedence over nature in general and butterflies in particular.

Table of Contents:

• Encounters with the butterflies of America. Yankee butterfly people ; The German-American romantics ; Beating hearts ; Word power ; The life and death of butterflies
• Encounters with the butterflies of the world. In the wake of empire ; Butterflies at the fair ; Death of the butterfly people.

Author/Creator:

Leach, William, 1944-

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Butterfly people: an American encounter with the beauty of the world [by Leach, W.]

Other Related Resources:

Print version: Butterfly people [by Leach, W.] (1st ed.; New York : Pantheon Books, 2013 — ISBN 9780375422935; LCCN 2012000389; OCLC Number 769425359)

Subjects:

Butterflies — United States — History — 19th century

Entomologists — United States — History — 19th century

Industrial revolution — United States — History — 19th century

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-369) and index.
Description based on: Print version record.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxvi, 388 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations (chiefly color), maps (some color)

Call Numbers:

QL549 .L43 2013eb

ISBNs:

9780307907875 (electronic bk.)
0307907872 (electronic bk.)
9781299450622 (MyiLibrary)
1299450628 (MyiLibrary)
9780375422935 [Invalid]
0375422935 [Invalid]

OCLC Numbers:

837660723