Riverside's 'Butterfly Man' Rediscovered, Honored

The Museum of Riverside is using a spring 2026 Heritage House exhibition to put Charles Montagu Dammers — “Riverside’s Butterfly Man” — back into public view. (riversideca.gov) The exhibition, “A Victorian Heritage: Riverside’s Butterfly Man,” opened March 13 and runs Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through June 28 during regular Heritage House tours. (riversideca.gov) (raincrossgazette.com) City and museum accounts describe Dammers as a former Royal Navy officer who reached Riverside in the 1920s, revived an orange orchard, and spent his spare time rearing butterflies and illustrating insects. (riversideca.gov) (entomology.ucr.edu) The current show places Dammers inside a broader Victorian conservation story, including displays on natural-history tools, a recreated workspace, and programs such as butterfly walks and nature journaling. (riversideca.gov) (museumofriverside.org) The modern rediscovery started earlier. Bill Wilkman told the Raincross Gazette that the City of Riverside asked him in October 2011 to research Dammers when the city was planning to demolish Dammers’ former home at 6893 Victoria Avenue for a Stater Bros. expansion. (raincrossgazette.com) Wilkman said little was known then beyond Dammers’ butterfly work, and his research pulled in museum staff, neighbors, family members, and Los Angeles County natural-history experts to piece together the record. (raincrossgazette.com) That archival work fed into public memorials. A historical marker at Washington Park says Dammers bought a failing citrus grove there in 1921, became a self-taught expert in insect taxonomy and illustration, and had several insects named for him. (hmdb.org) The marker was erected in 2018 by Victoria Avenue Forever and Wilkman Historical Services, according to the Historical Marker Database, and the Raincross Gazette reported that Wilkman designed it. (hmdb.org) (raincrossgazette.com) City records also state that Dammers lived in Riverside until his death in 1956 and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery, linking the exhibition to the physical sites where his story now survives. (aquarius.riversideca.gov) So the Heritage House show is not just a biography on walls. It is the public result of a 2011 research project, a 2018 marker campaign, and a 2026 museum effort to make Dammers legible again in Riverside history. (raincrossgazette.com) (riversideca.gov)