William H. Edwards

William Henry Edwards (1822-1909) was an American businessman and pioneering entomologist who developed early coal mines in West Virginia while devoting much of his life to the study of butterflies. He authored the acclaimed three-volume treatise 'The Butterflies of North America' (1879, 1884, 1897), renowned for its scholarship and illustrations, and published over 250 scientific papers on Lepidoptera, including key work on polymorphism influenced by environmental factors like temperature. His passion stemmed from an 1846 Amazon expedition, documented in his travel book 'A Voyage on the River Amazon' (1847).