Edward Donovan

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Edward Donovan (1768 - 1837) was an Anglo Irish writer, traveller and amateur zoologist.

Born in Cork, Ireland, Donovan was the founder of the London Museum and Institute of Natural History, which contained his extensive natural history collection. The collection was sold at auction in 1817.

Donovan was the author of a number of natural history titles, including Natural History of British Birds (1792-97), Natural History of British Insects (1792-1813) and Natural History of British Fishes (1802-08).

His best known works are An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of China (1798) and An Epitome of the Natural History of the Insects of India (1800) an image from which (and other early entomological works) may be seen on [1] and [2].