Evelyn Cheesman

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Evelyn Cheesman

1881-1969

English entomologist who collected South Pacific insects. Cheesman studied entomology because veterinary colleges refused to admit women. As the Regent's Park Zoo's insect keeper, she joined a 1924 scientific expedition to the Marquesas and Galapagos Islands. Cheesman returned to the South Pacific eight times, collecting specimens for the British Museum of Natural History. She wrote sixteen books about her tropical adventures. As a New Guinea-gazette writer, she proved useful to Allied forces during World War II.