Canada’s earliest naturalists prepared beautiful illustrations of the plants and animals they encountered in their new homeland as a way of documenting their appearance and existence. One of Manitoba’s first prairie naturalists was the English artist and entomologist Norman Criddle (1875-1933).
Norman Criddle was born in England and immigrated to Canada in 1882 with his parents and siblings. They experienced a full life of farming combined with leisure and intellectual pursuits (such as golf, tennis, and amateur science). Norman was inclined and encouraged to pursue art and science, and combined the two in his detailed watercolours. From his home base in Aweme, in southwestern Manitoba, he painted many of the wild prairie plants and insects which he observed in and around the Criddle-Vane Homestead, now a Provincial Heritage Park (http://www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/parks/popular_parks/western/criddle.html). Many of his illustrations were used in agricultural publications.
The main house at the Criddle-Vane Homestead Provincial Heritage Park, Manitoba. (693kb)
© The Manitoba Museum. Photo: Diana Bizecki Robson
Norman invented the “Criddle Mixture”, a poison that helped fight the grasshopper infestation of 1902. He was appointed as the provincial entomologist in 1919. His extensive entomological collections are still studied today.
The entomology lab at the Criddle-Vane Homestead Provincial Heritage Park, Manitoba. (689kb)
© The Manitoba Museum. Photo: Diana Bizecki Robson
A plaque about Norman Criddle at the Criddle-Vane Homestead Provincial Heritage Park, Manitoba. (625kb)
© The Manitoba Museum. Photo: Diana Bizecki Robson
Norman’s collection of 502 watercolours is now preserved at The Manitoba Museum, with some on display in the Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery. Paintings of some of the species featured in our Plant Gallery are available for you to view here.
