JANSON, Edward Wesley

His family was of Dutch descent and his father was for many years London Agent of the Dutch-Rhenish Railway Company. In was in his father's office that Janson is recorded to have learned his business skills. Janson's interest in entomology was sufficiently developed by 1843 that he joined the Entomological Society, and his first publication was 'Notice of the occurrence of rare Coleopterous insects with observations on their habits' in Zool., 6, 1848, 2108-2110. In 1850 he was appointed Curator of the collections which the Society maintained at that time, a position which he held until 1863 when he became Librarian in which post he stayed until 1874. Janson's move from the Curatorship apparently resulted from differences of opinion about the relative merits of national and international research, and, since he had started up his natural history business in 1852, may also have involved differing attitudes to the commercialisation of the science. Certainly the writer of his obituary in EMM., 27, 1891, 278, hinted that his attitude was not sufficiently nationalistic as to be healthy and appears to apportion praise with reluctance: 'Most unfortunately for himself and the Society his peculiar temperament led to a serious split in the Society in 1862. All this time [1843-1862] Mr Janson was diligently collecting and studying the British Coleoptera, and did much and undoubtedly good work in an Order that was then comparatively little known, and to which the only guide was Stephens's Manual. He went the right way to work, and entered inrto correspondence with the leading Continental authorities on Coleoptera, therby clearing up many doubtful points, and adding largely to the number of known British species. He was a frequent contributor to the Entomologist's Weekly Intelligencer, etc. and from 1855 to 1861 furnished the chapter on British Coleoptera to the Entomologist's Annual. Here again his temperament unfortunately brought him into violent contact with his fellow workers, for our Coleopterists in those days were by no means a happy family.' The notes in the Entomologist's Annual recorded numerous species new to the British list, many of which he either took or identified himself. Janson was particularly interested in the literature of entomology and apart from amassing a considerable library, also involved himself, through his business, in publication. The Journal of Entomology, which appeared in 14 parts from 1862-1866, appears to have been his initiative although Taylor and Francis's name appears on it, but his name is clearly stated as publisher of Cistula Entomologica, which continued the series, in 29 parts, from 1869-1885. He also published a volume of British Beetles in 1863 with illustrations transferred from Curtis's British Entomology. Of the work he did through his business the writer of the obituary noted above stated 'As a Natural History agent he did much, and often for the mere love of the thing, to enrich the collections of many of our prominent entomologists; the amiable side of his character strongly and favourably exhibited itself with the mellowness of age'. Apart from his work on the British fauna Janson also put together a very large collection of world Elateridae, although he published only one article on this group 'Descriptions of six new species of Elateridae collected by Mr Clarence Buckley during his second expedition to Ecuador' in Cist. ent., 3, 1882, pp.33-37. This collection passed to NHM via F.D.Godman in June 1903 and is described in The History of the Collections..., 1906, p.590, as follows: 'It consists of 25,000 specimens of which at least 1000 are original types. Janson purchased the collection of this family made by M. Candeze, and which was the basis of his monograph. He also bought a second collection formed by Candeze, and he possessed according to a note found anmongst his papers the collections of Latreille, Dejean, Buquet, Reiche, Laferte, Gory, Parry, Deyrolle, Schaum (part), Bakewell (including Curtis), W.W.Saunders, Mniszech, E.Brown, A. Murray, H.Clark, and Atkinson. He also had large series of specimens collected by Wallace, Bates, Buckley etc.' There are also specimens bearing Janson's name in the Hall Collection at Oldham (information from S.Hayhow), the York Museum (information from M.Denton) and in the Mason Collection at Bolton. Apart from the obituary mentioned above there is another in Ent., 24, 1891, p.252. (MD 8/03)