I Am Sure We Have All Heard Of The Big Museums,

but there are so many other smaller ones that are so interesting,

 if you followed our trip to the UK we went around a few, whilst looking we found many like this one in America, the May Natural History Museum, located in the Rocky Mountains near Colorado Springs, at 710 Rock Creek Canyon Road,

 the museum now it its 65th. year has the largest collection of privately owned insects and butterflies in the world,

 some of the cases going back to the first year it opened, 

 above James May, left, and John May, with a display of Phasmatodea, or stick insects, in the 1940s, now some history of the museum from museum’s current president, R.J. Steer, “My great-grandfather, James May, was born in England, James’s father was a collector for the British Museum, and took his family to Brazil when James was a child, this was in the days of Charles Darwin, when you’d send a ship out, land on an island, collect two of everything, and bring it all back, in those days, these collectors were called ‘naturalists,’ as they would save everything from fossils to minerals to botanic specimens, you name it.” after his father died of malaria, young James May continued in his footsteps, eventually travelling to South Africa for the Second Boer War in 1899, though critically injured and left for dead, May was rescued by a group of Zulu people who took him to a British aid station, while recuperating, May began saving rare and exotic species in a personal archive of tropical insects, and after moving to Canada the collection was begun, 

 above the Mays’ travel trailer that was used to take parts of the collection on tour for various state fairs, car shows, and other events that drew crowds through the 1950s,

 May had three sons, and his eldest, John, had a natural instinct for entrepreneurship, John was just 13 years old when the collection first toured Canada and the northern United States, but his showmanship worked, and people flocked to the family’s magnificent insects—all meticulously preserved, mounted, and scientifically labelled, “He had grown men working for him, roustabouts who needed a buck,” says Steer,

though the country was in the midst of the Great Depression, the family’s business was sustained through small donations made by visitors, in the course of their travels, the Mays passed through Colorado’s Front Range and decided it was an ideal spot to establish a permanent museum devoted to exotic insects, during World War II, Steer’s grandmother, Vicky May, purchased about 180 acres of land, which became the first parcel of the property the museum sits on today, so if you are in the area and want to see the show call in, but first ring for opening times as the museum is only open in the summer season. +1 719-576-0450, have fun!