Become a Friend of the Frost Entomological Museum

Our mission is, in part, to foster curiosity about the natural world and to preserve and protect the arthropod collections in our care. Since our recent overhaul of the collections infrastructure and public space, we are now better prepared than ever to fulfill this mission!

Becoming a Friend equips us with the tools needed for collections care, provides resources for student engagement, and helps fund the rotation of new exhibits into the museum. 

If you’d like to support our mission by becoming a Friend of the Frost, visit the Penn State Make a Gift site to provide your gift. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at frost.museum@psu.edu!

 

Become an Honorary Conservator

Support from Honorary Conservators will go directly towards the care and curation of the museum specimens. By becoming an Honorary Conservator, you will receive the following benefits for a year:

Support levels:

Honorary Archivist- $100

• A personalized letter explaining how your contribution improved the health of the collections.

Honorary Curator – $500

• Enjoy the benefits of an Honorary Archivist
• The ability to dictate which group or taxon receives curation priority with your gifted funds
• An invitation to tour the Frost Entomological Museum. Meet others who have a similar interest in Pennsylvania’s entomological heritage!

If you’d like to contribute to the care of museum specimens by becoming an Honorary Conservator, send an email to frost.museum@psu.edu notifying us which level of support you are interested in, and visit the Penn State Make a Gift site to provide your gift. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

 

Donating Specimens

Did you recently inherit an insect collection that you hope will be cared for and made available for research? Do you have a collection yourself you want to donate? The Frost Entomological Museum is ready to engage! Here is the typical process for donating specimens:

1. You might want to familiarize yourself with our Collection Management Policy (1.4 MB PDF) document, which describes the scope of our museum and the conditions we consider favorable for a collection donation. Sections 3 and 4 are especially relevant.
2. Contact the director (Andy Deans; adeans@psu.edu) with details about the collection to be donated. He will be especially interested in these details:
   1. Condition – Are they missing legs and antennae? Do you see a lot of dust in the storage box(es)?
   2. Provenance – Do you know where and when these specimens were collected and by whom? Do you have documents, including relevant permits (if necessary)?
   3. Size and diversity – Can you estimate how many specimens you want to donate? Do you know what and how many kinds of insects there in the collection?
3. Consider adding a monetary component to the donation. Treating, accessioning, and curating new specimens is a resource-intensive process. We appreciate the help!

 

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