Tag Archives: curation

Bressler longhorned beetle collection

The longhorned beetle, Typocerus zebra (Olivier, 1795) In May, Dr. Ellen Brown of Fredericksburg, Virginia donated the collection of her husband Dr. Barry Lee Bressler (1936 – 2017) to the Virginia Tech Insect Collection. Dr. Bressler, who was born in … Continue reading

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Professor Smyth’s Butterflies

Papered insects of Ellison Smyth, founding head of VT Biological Sciences Did you know that the first football coach of Virginia Tech, Professor Ellison Smyth, was also a butterfly collector? In fact, Professor Smyth was also one of the first … Continue reading

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New Insect Cabinets!

By Theresa Dellinger Our new insect cabinets are here! We now have museum-quality, archival cabinets specially engineered for the protective storage of our pinned specimens. The double-door cabinets are over 7’ tall and hold 48 Cornell drawers. They are made from … Continue reading

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Things I’ve Found While Transferring Specimens

We’ve been transferring our pinned insect specimens into new unit trays for several weeks now, an activity best described as time-consuming. When finished, we’ll have replaced our current mix of old, hard-bottomed and various types of soft-bottomed unit trays in … Continue reading

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A Weird Beetle and a Lesson on Proper Labels

By Theresa Dellinger I’ve been sorting through some donated material over the past week and found a really cool insect to share today. When I first saw it, my reaction was “What is THAT?” There was no collection data label … Continue reading

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Greetings from the New Home of the Virginia Tech Insect Collection!

My name is Dr. Theresa Dellinger, but I go by the nickname of Tree. I’m the collections manager for the Virginia Tech Insect Collection (VTEC). I’ve spent much of the past semester moving the collection from an off campus storage … Continue reading

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New home

Seitz Hall, the new home of Virginia Tech’s Insect Collection This winter, the Virginia Tech Insect Collection is moving back to campus. After 20 years of temporary storage at Price’s Fork Research Facility (7 km east of campus), the 125-year-old … Continue reading

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Support from the National Science Foundation

I am pleased to announce that our proposal for a Collections in Support of Biological Research (CSBR) grant that we submitted for the Virginia Tech Insect Collection has been funded by the National Science Foundation! This award from the Division … Continue reading

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McGinleying

VTech Insect Collection Assessment By Jackson Means Over the past month our lab has been taking part in an activity we have fondly come to refer to as “McGinleying.” Ronald J. McGinley was a curator at the National Museum of … Continue reading

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Taking a Look Around

By James Wilson I am a graduate student in the department of entomology and I  signed up for an independent class with Dr. Paul Marek.  The idea has been that I can learn things about our collection and curating.  You … Continue reading

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