Today, the gentlewoman Eleanor Glanville (1655-1709) is often remembered as the first lady of British butterflies. In Glanville’s own lifetime, she gained a reputation amongst London naturalists as an astute collector of butterflies from the South West region of England. Yet, a turn towards Glanville’s material archive, namely, her extant specimens held at the Natural History Museum of London, reveals Glanville’s success as a collector of rare butterflies from the Americas and thus, her complicity in colonial collecting. This article provides an object biography of a single Pipevine Swallowtail orBattus philenor, c. 1700, labelled “Glandvill.” It follows the butterfly specimen from its obscure origins in the Americas, to Glanville’s residence in the Atlantic port city of Bristol, and to London naturalists’ cabinets of curiosities, where it would became part of collections that helped found the British Museum, the first public museum of its kind. This path sheds light on the complex socio-material realities and gendered dynamics of collecting insects within the context of the British Empire at the turn of the eighteenth century. The insect-artifact, as I call it, provides a rare glimpse at a woman naturalist who, much like her male peers, established informants abroad to collect specimens on her behalf. In particular, Glanville’s proximity to Bristol afforded her access to these informants, some of whom were women. This object attests to the role that empire played in building one woman’s collection of insects and her contributions to the making of present-day natural history museums. It also suggests that while empire opened up opportunities for women naturalists, it did not necessarily advance their reputations as collectors.