HISTORICAL NOTE
Gustav Wilhelm Belfrage (1834-1882), born in Sweden, came to America in 1860 or
1861 and for the next twenty years made his living in large measure by selling
insect specimens to entomologists throughout the world. He had known Carl
Heinrich Boheman and Carl Stal in Sweden, and maintained contact with them
after coming to America. Soon after arriving, he went to Chicago, and in 1866
he began his plan to collect in Texas. He corresponded with many American
entomologists and with their encouragement and that of the Swedish Academy of
Sciences, went on a collecting trip to Texas in 1867. Many of his specimens are
in collections throughout the world, but his own collections, among which are
most types of the new species of Hymenoptera described by Cresson, are in the
National Museum of Natural History. He collected in many areas of Texas,
especially in Bosque and McLennan counties.
DESCRIPTIVE ENTRY
These papers consist of letters from entomologists throughout the United States
and Europe regarding purchase and exchange of specimens, especially insects of
Texas, and include correspondence from Austria, England, France, Germany,
Sweden, Russia, the United States, and Mexico; and a commission of 1866 from
the Swedish Academy of Sciences for Belfrage's collecting in Texas.
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