‘The Rockefeller Beetles’ explores the beauty of a major gift
Over the span of 90 years, banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller collected beetles from around the world, eventually building a personal collection of more than 150,000 specimens. In 2017, his longstanding support for the Entomology Department of the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) culminated in a gift to the museum of this extraordinary collection. The Harvard Museum of Natural History celebrates this monumental gift with “The Rockefeller Beetles,” a new exhibit that features hundreds of the specimens and recounts the story of a man whose childhood pursuit grew into a lifelong passion. A selection from ‘The Rockefeller Beetles’ exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural HIstory. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer It was a summer tutor who encouraged Rockefeller in that area in 1925, and he began collecting a wide variety of insects. He eventually focused on beetles, and spent a lifetime exploring their extraordinary diversity, said MCZ’s entomology curator Brian Farrell, who...