Robert H. F. Rippon (1836 - 1917)

Robert H. F. Rippon

Robert Henry Fernando Rippon was a British zoologist, entomologist and illustrator.

Rippon was a musician, but later became passionate about natural history. In the 1860s he made a collecting trip to Panama, New Grenada and South America, and around the same time his talent as a natural history artist developed.

In 1890, Rippon began work on a multi-volume work on the butterfly-birdwings Icones Ornithopterum. He wrote the text himself, drew, lithographed, and hand-colored the plates. The work, eventually published in 25 parts, became his "principal and almost all-purpose occupation" for nearly 20 years.

After Rippon's death, his vast collection was donated to the Natural History Museum. The insects alone numbered 105,760, including more than 21,000 butterflies and 17,000 moths.