Zimmerman Collection

The Zimmerman Collection brings together about 600 books and 66 serials, mainly focused on entomology and the natural sciences. While its core strength lies in works on British entomology, the collection also spans Europe, North and South America. It offers rich insights into historical scientific studies, with one-third of the material dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries.

Key items in the collection

The Zimmerman Collection comprises about 600 books and 66 serials (about 2,000 volumes) mainly relating to entomology and the natural sciences generally.

There is a particular strength in works on British entomology, while most of the remaining works relate to insects of Europe, North America and South America.

About one-third of the books were published in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Among the many rare works in the collection are the following:

Johann Matthaeus Barth, De culice dissertatio (1737)
John Curtis, British Entomology (16 vols, 1823–1840)
André Marie Constant Dumeril, Considerations generales sur la classe des insects (1823)
Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, Symbolae physicae (4 vols, 1828–1845)
Carolo Father Fallen, Diptera Sveciae (2 vols in 1, 1814–1827)
John Gwyn Jeffreys, British Conchology, or an Account of the Mollusca which Now Inhabit the British Isles and the Surrounding Seas (5 vols, 1862–1869)
Carl von Linne, Fauna svecica, sistens animalia Sveciae regni (1761)
Otto Frederik Muller, Zoologiae danicae prodromus (1776)
Georg Wolfgang Franz Panzer, Faunae insectorum Germanicae initia, oder, Deutschlands Insecton (2 vols, 1793–1813)
Charles De Geer, De Geer: Genera et species insectorum (1783)
Camillo Rondani, Genera Italica: ordinis Dipterorum (1856)
Pietro Rossi, Fauna etrusca (2 vols in 1, 1790)
Franz von Paula Schrank, Enumeratio insectorum Austriae indigenorum (1781)
Franz von Paula Schrank, Fauna Boica (3 vols, 1798–1803)
Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Entomologia carniolica exhibens insecta Carnioliae indigena et distribute in ordines, genera, species, varietates (1763) – This book was the first entomological work to use the Linnaean system.
Thomas Pattinson Yeats (translation), Institutions of Entomology, Being a Translation of Linnaeu's ordines et genera insectorum (1773)
Johan Wilhelm Zetterstedt, Diptera Scandinaviae: disposita et descripta (14 vols in 7, 1842–1860).

Among the European periodicals in the collection are:

Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift (vols 1–55, 1857–1911)
Bulletin of Entomological Research (Farnham Royal) (vols 1–40, 1910–1949)
Entomologisk Tidskrift (Stockholm) (vols 1–32, 1880–1912)
Entomological Magazine (London) (vols 1–5, 1833–1838)
Linnaea Entomologica (Berlin) (vols 1–12, 1846–1858)
Natural History Review (Dublin) (12 vols, 1854–1865)
Naturhistorisk Tidsskrift(Copenhagen) (vols 1–6, 1837–1849)
Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, (Amsterdam) (vols 1–55, 1858–1912)
Wiener Entomologische Zeitung (Vienna) (vols 1–30, 1882–1911).

About Elwood Curtin Zimmerman

Elwood Curtin Zimmerman (1912–2004) was born in Spokane, Washington, in the United States and was a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the University of London.

Career

In 1934 Zimmerman took part in a scientific expedition to Polynesia and 2 years later he was appointed as an assistant entomologist at the Bernice P Bishop, Museum at Honolulu. For a few years he also lectured at the University of Hawaii.

He remained with the Bishop Museum as an entomologist and research associate until 1973. In that year he emigrated to Australia and became a senior research fellow with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Division of Entomology in Canberra, a position that he held until 1983.

In his later years he lived near Merimbula, New South Wales.

Author

Zimmerman was the author of over 200 scientific papers, but is best known as the author of 2 multi-volume works:

Insects of Hawaii (8 volumes, 1948–1958)
Australian Weevils (5 volumes, 1991–1994).

Eight volumes of Australian weevils were planned, but volumes 4, 7 and 8 were not published.

Sacrifice

Zimmerman worked on the classification of about 6,000 weevil species for 22 years. For 12 of those years he was unpaid and, although the work was published by CSIRO, Zimmerman had to sell his farm and family heirlooms in order to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for their publication.

Medal

He received the CSIRO Special Medal in 1995.

Background to the collection

The Zimmerman Collection was purchased by the Library from Zimmerman in 1974.

The books and journals in the Zimmerman Collection have been integrated into the Rare Books and general collections. They have been catalogued individually.

In 1974, with the agreement of Dr Zimmerman, 55 monographs and 16 serial titles were transferred on extended loan to the CSIRO Black Mountain Library. Three books were later returned.

Ashley Hay, Zimmerman's Crusade, The Independent (Sydney), September 1995, pp 10–11, 14–15.
David Mussared, Dr Zimerman: A Passion for Weevil, Canberra Times, 22 February 1995, p 5.
Charles H Smith, Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists and Ecologists: Chrono-biographical Sketches