This miniature may portray the Philadelphia naturalist and pioneering entomologist Thomas Say (1787–1834). A self-taught naturalist, Say identified around 1,400 species of insects and was one of the founders of Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences. A close friend and colleague of the Peale family of artists and naturalists, Say traveled extensively in pursuit of knowledge and specimens and was the resident zoologist on the government-sponsored 1819–20 James Long expedition to the Rocky Mountains, where he was assisted by Titan Ramsay Peale. Say compiled the fruits of much of his life’s labor into two massive studies of American insects and shellfish, American Entomology (1824–28) and American Conchology (1830–34).