Frederick Knab

Who was Frederick Knab?

Frederick Knab was an artist and entomologist active from the 1880s through the 1918, most noted for his oil paintings and illustrations and his work with coleopterous and dipterous insects.

Knab was born September 22, 1865, in Würzburg, Bavaria and came to the United States as a boy of eight with his parents, Oscar and Josephine Knab, who settled in Chicopee, Massachusetts in 1873. His father was an engraver and painter and an uncle was court painter to the King of Bavaria. In his youth, Knab showed artistic talent and a strong interest in the natural sciences, especially entomology. He studied the classic works of Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Henry Walter Bates and accumulated a large collection of insects, particularly beetles, and became an active member of the Springfield Zoological Club and an active correspondent with other coleopterists.

In 1885, Knab undertook a sixteen month collecting trip up the Amazon River, traveling from its mouth to Peru. He kept a journal of his expedition, which formed an important source of experience for his later scientific career.