Libraries
Identity elements
Reference code
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1896-1980 (Creation)
Extent
1 Cubic Foot Box
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Department of Entomology was officially established at K-State in 1913 with George Dean as the first department head. Previously, courses on the subject had been taught as early as 1865 by Benjamin F. Mudge. From 1877 to 1883, entomology was taught as part of Botany and Horticulture. In 1897, Horticulture and Entomology were consolidated, but in the 1894 catalog, Entomology was listed as a separate subdepartment. After being officially established, Entomology remained in Arts and Sciences until July 1, 1953, when it was transferred to Agriculture.
Administrators of Entomology include Mudge (1865-1873), J. S. Whitman (1873-1876), E. A. Popenoe (1879-1897, 1899-1907), Ernest E. Faville (1897-1898), and Thomas J. Headlee (1907-1912). Subsequent heads of Entomology were George A. Dean (1912-1943), Roger C. Smith (1943-1953), Herbert Knutson (1953-1976), Richard J. Sauer (1976-1980), Robert G. Helgesen (1980-1989), C. Michael Smith (1990- 1996), Sonny Ramaswamy (1997-2006), Jim Nechols (interim), Thomas W. Phillips (2007-2012), John Ruberson (2012-2018), and Brian McCornack (2018-present).
The department’s facilities include 22 greenhouses and laboratories that feature bioclimatic chambers and rearing rooms. Field research for the department is conducted at branch experiment stations throughout the state of Kansas. The department also maintains an award-winning Insect Zoo at the K-State gardens.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Illustrations of various insect species (predominantly beetles, flies, and ants) drawn with the intention of being featured in the text "Insects in Kansas" by the Kansas Department of Agriculture. Illustrations not selected for publishing are specified and still included within the collection.
Faculty members from the Department of Entomology at Kansas State College (now Kansas State University) in Manhattan received support (ca. 1940-43) from a somewhat unusual source to complete a work of practical utility describing the region’s insect fauna. Their patron was none other than the Federal Art Project (FAP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) - the largest agencies of their kind that provided employment relief during the Great Depression under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. More than a dozen and a half regional artists were recruited and trained in the exacting techniques of scientific illustration, for which stringent standards of performance were uniformly applied. Through their efforts, more than a hundred pen-and-ink habitus drawings were prepared for the identification manual, Insects in Kansas (1943), published by the Kansas State Board of Agriculture.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Physical access
Technical access
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Scripts of the material
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Generated finding aid
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Illustrations were created in the 1940s as part of the WPA project. Illustrations were managed in the Department of Entomology until they were transferred to the archives in summer 2023. Transfer agreement was signed at the time.
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
This box is accession 2022-23.138 and is an accural to the existing collection (Boxes 1-11)