The Titian Peale Butterfly and Moth Collection

The Peale box restoration project was supported in part by Save America's Treasures through a partnership between the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Park Service , Department of the Interior (NEA # 02-7700-3011, Jan 1, 2002-May 30, 2004). We appreciate the designation of the Titian Peale Butterfly and Moth Collection as one of "America's Treasures!"

In addition, this project was supported by an award from the Forrest C. Lattner Foundation, and support from The Academy of Natural Sciences' Collection Care Upgrade Fund.

We also want to acknowledge funding from The William Penn Foundation which allowed us to develop the initial conservation assessment and treatment protocols (1996-1997). This project could have been accomplished without the generosity of all these funding organizations.

We also thank Linda Ellsworth and Don Azuma for their efforts to secure the funding for this project.

The conservation of the box contents was carried out by conservator Catharine Hawks, Falls Church, VA. The conservation of the box covers and indices was performed at The Conservation Center of Art and Historic Artifacts Philadelphia, PA by Glen Ruzicka, and Rolf Kat, conservators). Without their efforts, this wonderful collection would have remained broken, deteriorating, and unusable.

The replacement of some of the original glass was necessary due to existing breakage. We especially thank Corning Inc, Corning, New York, and employees Charles Darcangelo, Peter Drobny, and Stephen Koob for arranging the donation of period glass which met the requirements for this project.

Chemical analysis to determine composition of some of the box materials was carried out by Orion Analytical, Williamstown, MA

We thank Academy employees Carl Zuccerelli, Walter Donovan and David Rusenko for help in arranging the renovation of the Peale collection space.

We also thank the efforts of library archivists Mr. Armand Esai, Field Museum of Natural History, and Mr. Earle Spamer, The Academy of Natural Sciences, for access to the Peale related materials under their care. Eileen Mathias, librarian, was helpful in making images of Peale artwork available.

For the opportunity to examine and photograph the Peale specimens in the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA, we thank Dr. John Rawlins, Curator, Section of Invertebrate Zoology.

Identifications of specimens were made by Dr. Dale F. Schweitzer, Port Norris, NJ (most Macrolepidoptera), Dr. Alma Solis, Systematic Entomology Laboratory, USDA, Washington, DC (Pyraloidea) and Mr. Jason Weintraub (remainder of Macrolepidoptera). Crane flies (Tipulidae) were identified by Dr. Jon Gelhaus.

The database underlying this website was compiled by Jason Weintraub from the book box indices. Specimens and box photos were taken and compiled by Jason Weintraub. Many specimens underwent special photo editing to remove competing objects in the background. This intensive image editing was done in Photoshop by curatorial assistant Elana Benamy.

The database structure, search and display capabilities and the formation of the website was developed by Dr. Paul J. Morris, The Academy of Natural Sciences. Text for the website was developed by Jon Gelhaus, Jason Weintraub and Elana Benamy.

When mentioning this database in a scientific paper please include this citation: J.K. Gelhaus, J.D. Weintraub, P.J. Morris, and E. Benamy. 2004. An illustrated online catalog of the Titian Peale Butterfly and Moth Collection (version 1.0: 2004-Sept-20). [WWW database] URL http://data.acnatsci.org/peale

Thanks to all who made this project possible!

Peale Project Team:

• Jon Gelhaus, Director
• Jason Weintraub
• Paul J. Morris
• Elana Benamy