Entomologist

front lawn of the Purdue Agricultural Administration Building, 615 W. State Street , West Lafayette, IN 47906
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Artist: Susie Chisholm. The sculpture of three individuals observing a tiger swallowtail butterfly represents one of the primary missions of a land grant university - providing education to the general public through the Extension service. The individuals portrayed in the sculpture are now frozen in time at the age each would have been in 1924, when the science of entomology was just beginning to capture public attention. The standing figure is J.J. Davis, who served as head of the Purdue Department of Entomology from 1920 to 1956. The young boy depicts John V. Osmun who became head of the Department of Entomology in 1956, when Davis retired. Rachel Carson is the young woman holding the swallowtail butterfly. She was a marine biologist, conservationist and pioneering nature writer in the 1950s.