Bernt Wilhelm Westermann (2 October 1781 in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

– 10 March 1868) was a wealthy Danish businessman who collected

insects Insects (from Latin ') are hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed ...

. He was based in

Slotsholmsgade Slotsholmsgade ( "Slotsholm Street") is a street which runs along the rear side of Børsen on Slotsholmen in central Copenhagen, Denmark. Located next to the Danish parliament building Christiansborg, most of the buildings in the street house gov ...

at the 1850 census (Bag Børsen No. 74, first floor).

Entology

As an amateur insect collector Westermann travelled to

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

(India) and later to

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

(Indonesia) as an employee of an English business firm. At the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

, in

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

and

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

he collected insects for English and Dutch friends, amongst others for

Thomas Horsfield Thomas Horsfield (May 12, 1773 – July 24, 1859) was an American physician and natural history, naturalist who worked extensively in Indonesia, describing numerous species of plants and animals from the region. He was later a curator of the Eas ...

. In 1817 he returned to Copenhagen becoming a shipowner and owner of a sugar-refinery at Slotholmsgade in Copenhagen. Insects from all orders acquired and collected during the rest of his life added to his Cape, Java and Bengal insects to form a notable collection. In all there were 45,000 species in beautiful condition. The collection can be admired today in the Royal Museum Collection in the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

References

Sources

* Entom. Meddel. 15, 1936, p. 161-164, fig. 39-40 portr., p. 197-198. * Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 5: Cyclopaedia of collectors, Supplement I * Pont, A. C., 1995 Steenstrupia Copenhagen 21(2): 125 - 154 (Sammlungsverbleib)

1808 Events January–March * January 1 ** The importation of slaves into the United States is formally banned, as the 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves takes effect. However Americans still continue the slave trade by transpor ...

External links

Article about Westerman
from ''Dansk biografisk Lexikon'' (Danish)
Source
{{DEFAULTSORT:Westermann, Bernt Wilhelm 1781 births 1868 deaths 19th-century Danish businesspeople Businesspeople from Copenhagen Danish lepidopterists Danish businesspeople in shipping