Pieter Cramer

Pieter Cramer was a wealthy Dutch merchant in linen and Spanish wool, remembered primarily as an entomologist. He was the director of the Zealand Society, a scientific society located in Flushing, and a member of literary and patriotic society Concordia et Libertate, based in Amsterdam. The latter society commissioned the publishing of his book De uitlandsche Kapellen, on foreign butterflies and moths, occurring in three parts of the world Asia, Africa and America.

As an entomologist Cramer assembled an extensive natural history collection of insects of all orders. Many were colorful butterflies and moths collected in countries where the Dutch had colonial or trading links, such as Surinam, Ceylon, Sierra Leone and the Dutch East Indies. To make a permanent record of his collection, Cramer engaged the painter Gerrit Wartenaar to draw his specimens, and those of other collectors in the Netherlands. The result was collection of beautiful and quality illustrations, and the publisher Caspar Stoll persuaded him to publish the drawings. The book De Uitlandsche Kapellen consisted of 34 issues in four volumes with all of the drawings accompanied with descriptions of the insects. Nowadays, the book is regarded as a key work in the history of entomology.