The Museum of Riverside’s Heritage House has begun the spring season with the opening of “A Victorian Heritage: Riverside’s Butterfly Man,” the latest feature in an exhibition series explores the life and work of Charles Montagu Dammers, one of the city’s most influential naturalists.
The exhibition will be on view during regular Heritage House tours on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through June 28. Museum officials recommended booking tours in advance via Eventbrite.
The Museum’s spring exhibition explores the environmental conservation movement at the turn of the 19th century, when women’s fashion embraced trends such as wearing dead birds on hats. Victorian naturalists emerged as individuals who appreciated nature and shared the growing concern about overharvesting natural resources.
Dammers was among a generation of naturalists inspired by this movement.
A lieutenant in the Royal Navy turned gold prospector, he arrived in Riverside in the 1920s where he turned his green thumb toward reviving an orange orchard. Dammers was deeply influenced by the Victorian naturalists of his youth and developed his own passion for natural history upon his arrival in Riverside. He raised and studied butterflies and other insects in his spare time and created vivid watercolor illustrations of these insects and published notes on their biology, earning him the nickname “Riverside’s Butterfly Man.”
Throughout Heritage House, small bell jars are spread throughout the facility signify important objects on exhibit relating to Dammers’ story. Visitors can see what the life of an early scientist was like via objects such as magnifying glasses, insect-collecting equipment and books about natural history.
Also included is a reimagined example of what Dammers’ workspace may have looked like, including “rearing cages” for his butterflies, watercolors and a vintage typewriter, according to the Museum.
A series of events accompany the exhibition this spring, including nature journaling, live insect programs and butterfly walks with the Ian Wright, the Museum’s curator of natural history.
For more information and to keep informed about Museum of Riverside activities, visit museumofriverside.org.
