Department of Entomology, National Museum of Natural History

The Department of Entomology is a research department and collection unit of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), located in Washington, DC. The department houses the U.S. National Insect Collection, one of the largest entomological collections in the world, with over 35 million specimens housed in 132,354 drawers, 33,000 jars or vials, and 23,000 slides in more than 5,200 cabinets. The department also includes research scientists and technical staff from the Smithsonian Institution, the United States Department of Agriculture Systematic Entomology Lab (SEL) and United States Department of Defense Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (WRBU).

Prior to 1862, the U. S. government’s entomological work for agriculture was handled by the United States Patent Office. With the establishment of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1862, the responsibility was transferred to the newly appointed USDA Chief Entomologist, Townend Glover. When he retired in 1877, he was succeeded by Charles Valentine Riley, who resigned in 1879 after a personal disagreement and was replaced with . Riley was reinstated as USDA Chief Entomologist in 1881, and was then also appointed Honorary Curator of the newly created Division of Insects at the United States National Museum (USNM). Although the USNM had been established in 1842. 4 years before the founding of the Smithsonian Institution, insufficient funding at the time led to the Smithsonian’s insect collection being distributed to collaborating scientists, with the understanding that the material could be reclaimed.

In the 1870s, the USDA became the repository for the Smithsonian insect collection, which was added to the USDA collection. Upon Riley’s appointment as Honorary Curator, the USDA insect collection was officially transferred to the USNM. The first salaried Smithsonian entomologist was the lepidopterist John B. Smith, who served as assistant curator from 1885 to April 1889. With the donation of Riley’s personal collection (by Riley's account, 115,000 pinned specimens, 2,850 vials of alcohol material, and 3,000 slides of minute insects, for an estimated total of 150,000 specimens and 20,000 species) in 1886, the USNM insect collection achieved status as a major entomological depository. Riley was succeeded as USDA Chief Entomologist and Honorary Curator by Leland Ossian Howard, who served until 1927. In 1925, taxonomic work was established as a separate Bureau of Entomology within USDA, and underwent a series of names and reorganizations before becoming the Systematic Entomology Laboratory in 1967. The Department of Defense joined in 1961 because of the impact of mosquito-borne disease on national defense and public health.

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