Humphrey Zinn

Zinn, Humphrey

General technician at the South African Museum who collected thousands of insects, mainly in the karoo. Many of the specimens with "South African Museum Expedition" labels on them were collected by him. See also Charlie Thorne.

SAM; SAM ants: 1947-1959 (karoo localities). Hesse (A century and a half of entomology at the South African Museum. Unpublished Manuscript). "[Humphrey Zinn entered the [S.A.] Museum's service as a minor botanical assistant in the Herbarium in 1937, pressing and poisoning plant specimens. Subsequently, like Thorn, he became a general technical assistant and later still the Museum's printer of labels and the Museum's carpenter. In the latter two occupations, especially carpentry, he has and had no equal. He made one insect cabinet as an example and this cabinet is not inferior to the best imported one in the Musaeum. For some inexplicable reason this efficient assistant was transferred from carpentry and printing to other less useful duties. His connection with the Entomology Department began when he accompanied the entomologist and others of the scientific staff on trips and expedition as a collector of plants. He however proved himself to be an omnifarious collector of practically anything, plants, insects, spiders, scorpions, and fossils. For many years he accompanied either the entomologist or the palaeontologist as an assistant collector. In the insects alone he caught thousands. On many occasions the entomologist in charge of the expeditions [A.J. Hesse] felt small and insignificant when he compared his own day`s catch with the overflowing insect bottles of Messrs. Thorn and Zinn. On the whole, Zinn collected more insects for the Museum than any other assistant did in the history of the Museum. Apart from the thousands he collected on trips he privately collected over 20000 specimens in the karoo while on leave. These he caught, set, mounted on pins and labelled with locality labels printed by himself. Not only is Zinn an efficient and enthusiastic collector, but also a very good cook on expeditions and above all a very helpful and pleasant companion."

Note: G&C. p. 387.

Text by Hamish G. Robertson