Thomas Georg Münster (March 1, 1855 – March 10, 1938) was a mine manager. He was also a diligent

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

with a particular interest in

beetles Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

Family and education

Münster was born in Christiania (now

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

). He was the son of Emil Bertrand Münster (1816–1888), a professor of metallurgy, and Andrea Sophie With (1829–1918). Münster married Betzy Marie Lund (1857 – 1946) on December 6, 1881. They had two children, Emma (1882–1918) and Ragnhild (1888–?). He graduated with a degree in mining in 1878 and passed a practical exam in 1879.

Mine manager and mint administrator

Münster was associated with the

Royal Norwegian Mint The Royal Norwegian Mint (Den Kongelige Mynt) is a mint in Norway responsible for producing coins of the Norwegian krone. Founded in 1686 as part of Kongsberg Silverworks, the mint was taken over by the Central Bank of Norway in 1962 and later inco ...

Kongsberg Kongsberg () is a historical mining town and municipality in Buskerud, Viken county, Norway. The city is located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production ...

and the

Norwegian Directorate of Mining The Norwegian Directorate of Mining with the Commissioner of Mines at Svalbard ( no, Bergvesenet med Bergmesteren for Svalbard) is a Norwegian government agency responsible for administrating the extraction of mineral resources within the kingdo ...

for most of his working life. He worked as an assistant at the Geological Survey of Norway from 1882 to 1897, mostly in the

Oslo Graben The Oslo Graben or Oslo Rift is a graben formed during a geologic rifting event in Permian time, the last phase of the Variscan orogeny. The main graben forming period began in the late Carboniferous, which culminated with rift formation and volcan ...

. He was the mint administrator from 1899 to 1906, the mine manager for the Finnmark Mining District from 1906 to 1911, and the mine manager for the Eastern Mining District from 1911 to 1918.

Member of parliament

He was elected as a deputy representative to the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

for the 1889–1891 term, and then served as a member of parliament from 1892 to 1894 and from 1895 to 1897 for the constituency of Kongsberg.

Entomologist

Münster was one of the founders and initiators of the Norwegian Entomological Society in 1904. He served as chair of the society for 29 years. He was named an honorary member of the society in 1937. He also conceived of the journal ''

Norsk Entomologisk Tidsskrift The ''Norwegian Journal of Entomology'' is a biannual peer-reviewed scientific journal covering entomology, and arthropodology more in general, with an emphasis on Norway. It was established in 1920 as the ''Norsk Entomologisk Tidsskrift'', obta ...

'', and he served as its first editor from 1921 to 1932. When he retired as a mine manager in 1918, he was given a government scholarship to continue his research on entomology. He worked at the Oslo Zoological Museum. He also contributed a well-organized insect collection of over 80,000 beetles, containing 12,000 different species, to the Oslo Zoological Museum and the University Museum of Bergen. He described 65 species of beetles new to science. Münster donated an extensive private collection of entomology books to the

University of Oslo Library The University of Oslo Library ( no, Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo, UBO) is a library connected to the University of Oslo. Like the university, it was established in 1811 with Georg Sverdrup as the first head librarian. It originally doubled as ...

. He also produced a manuscript of twelve large volumes, in which he summarized all known finds of Norwegian beetle species. He authored more than 70 entomology articles.

Zoogeography

Münster was also engaged in zoogeography. Together with Knut Dahl and

Johannes Lid Johannes Lid (11 January 1886 – 29 September 1971) was a Norwegian botanist. He was born in Voss, and he married the illustrator Dagny Tande Lid in 1936. He is particularly known for his works on Scandinavian flora, and for his widely used ...

, in 1924 he coauthored the work ''A Division of Norway into Bio-Geographical Sectional Areas Agreed Upon by Botanists and Zoologists''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munster, Thomas Georg Members of the Storting Norwegian government scholars Norwegian entomologists Zoologists with author abbreviations Scientists from Oslo 1855 births 1938 deaths Liberal Party (Norway) politicians Politicians from Oslo