William Henry Edwards

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For other persons of the same name, see William Edwards.

William Henry Edwards (March 15, 1822 – April 4, 1909) was an important entomologist in the United States.

Edwards was born in Hunter, Greene County, New York. He is remembered for his trip to the Amazon in 1846, that he recorded in his book "A Voyage Up the River Amazon, with a residency at Pará" (1847), that inspired Wallace and Bates to make their famous trip to the region. Edwards published the first major study of "The Butterflies of North America" (finished in 1897). He was an observer of the American Civil War and a correspondent of Darwin. He died in Coalburgh, West Virginia.

[edit] Works

His more prominent writings were " A Voyage up the River Amazon" (16mo, 256 pp. New York: 1847. New edition, 12mo, 8 + 210 pp. London, 1855) ; "The Butterflies of North America," series 1-5 (4to, illus. New York and Boston : 1868-1897); "Synopsis of North American Butterflies " (410, 5+52 pp. Philadelphia: 1872); "Catalogue of the Diurnal Lepidoptera of America North of Mexico " (Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., Vol. 6, pp. 1-68) ; " Revised Catalogue of the Diurnal Lepidoptera of America North of Mexico " (8vo, pp. 95. Philadelphia : 1884); also over two hundred and fifty articles in various scientific journals.^[1]