Entomology Collection

There are around 40 cases of beetles, butterflies and moths collected before 1972 plus a large collection of butterflies bequeathed by Alan Brindle in 2001. (This collection has never been adequately catalogued).

There were a number of gifts of cases of butterflies and moths early in the museum's history and the 1938 catalogue md7a recorded 23 cases of butterflies, moths and beetles.

According to the last of the exhibition catalogues in 1952, Natural History No. 6 Room (room 29 in the 1902 heating plan of the building) contained "Cases of English and Foreign Butterflies, Moths, Beetles etc. Presented by Mr. Clutten, Mr. Smith, Mr. Shearman, Mr. Spencer, Sir H. Wright, A.R.C.S., the late Mr. Alderman Keighley, J. P. , Mr. de Courcy Fraser, Mr. Brindle and others".

There appears to have been a review of the collection in 1972 and some of the entries in md7a are given an object number beginning INS , however there are no index cards and nothing was added to the later accession registers.

Alan Brindle (1915-2001) was born in Nelson. He was interested in entomology and started collecting insects whilst still at school but when he was fourteen he had to start work. He worked in a woollen mill at Barrowford for many years but continued his studies at night school. In 1950 he joined the Manchester Museum as an assistant entomologist. He eventually became the Keeper of Entomology there, retiring in 1982. In 2000 he gave eight 10-drawer insect cabinets from his private collection to Towneley. These have not been catalgued or photographed.