Collecting treasures is in my blood. I only hope to some day live up to my Grandpa's collecting legacy. I have these great memories of exploring his house and garage opening drawers and finding amazing collections of watch parts, coins, knives, you name it. So, I just had to take Jean back there to see to see the treasures.

I must say, Grandpa did not disappoint. The house was a time-capsule...everything virtually the same as it was when I was a kid. This time, we could truly enjoy the uniqueness and thoroughness of his collecting: wood duck decoys, scores of antique clocks, walls papered with early license plates, classic toys, old farm tools, and more of just about everything.

Then, there were the BUTTERFLIES! We were given free reign to explore the garage when I noticed some particular well made wooden boxes scattered and haphazardly stacked under his work bench. I pulled one out, opened it up, and BAM! BUTTERFLIES! Rows and rows of them! We pulled out box after box with each yielding a different display of these winged creatures.

It turns out that my great Grandfather had a huge collection of butterflies from around the world that he donated to Michigan State University after he died. These were what was left of his collection after that. It's just incredible that they were in such great condition. You definitely don't see collections like these anymore. Check out my flickr photoset for more photos. fd

-Dylan