CHEESMAN, Evelyn.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Backwaters of the Savage South Seas. First and only edition, an account of an entomological expedition to the New Hebrides. Lucy Evelyn Cheesman (1881-1969) was an English entomologist famed for her extensive solo expeditions in the South West Pacific. A prolific author, she wrote 16 books on insects, natural history for children and accounts of her expeditions, in part to supplement her meagre income during her expeditions. The 70,000 specimens she collected have ensured her place as a collecting founder of the Natural History Museum. Uncommon in commerce particularly so in the sensational jacket.Cheesman was thwarted in her ambition to become a veterinary surgeon, and when her doctor suggested that her recovery from measles was being hindered by her frustration at being baulked she was deeply influenced by "this new idea of a duty towards my own individuality" (quoted in ODNB). In 1919 after war work at the Admiralty, she became a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, the following year being appointed curator of insects at the Zoological Society of London. Her first expedition was with the St. George's Expedition to the West Indies, Galápagos Islands and South Pacific, on her return she let the zoo to become an unpaid affiliate of the natural history department of the British Museum. "In 1928-30 she stretched a small grant to cover two years' collecting in the New Hebrides. She quickly earned the useful reputation among the local people of being proof against evil spi

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