Kenneth Bowman

undated photo 1950, Edmonton

Kenneth Bowman (1875-1955) was born in Durham, England, and came to Alberta in 1904. He ranched briefly at Pine Lake, southeast of Red Deer, then in 1906 moved to Edmonton where he became a chartered accoutant. He cultivated a keen interest in natural history, especially in Lepidoptera. His first Alberta collections were in 1904 and 1905 at Blackfalds. From 1907-1909 he collected, mainly in Edmonton, but from then on he managed to collect in a number of places each year. His accounting work often took him to the Jasper-Pocahontas, Nordegg and Hillcrest-Blairmore areas, from where he gathered many specimens. In 1919, he updated Wolley-Dod's list and published an "Annotated Checklist of the Macrolepidoptera of Alberta." Additions and corrrections were regularly made to this, from 1921 to 1944. Then in 1951, with help from E.H. Strickland, he brought out a further update in "An Annotated List of the Lepidoptera of Alberta." The latter contained over 1800 taxa, roughly twice the number in the former, with most additions being microlepidoptera. More of a collector and compiler than a taxonomist, Bowman seldom described anything new, with the exception of Colias eurytheme alberta. Bowman's extensive and meticulously prepared collection was deposited at the University of Alberta. (text from: Bird, C.D. et al. 1995. Alberta Butterflies. The Provincial Museum of Alberta. Edmonton. viii+349 pp.)