In 1827, Kirby assisted Henry Denny in arranging the natural history specimens at Norwich Museum. In 1832, he helped to establish an early museum in Ipswich under the aegis of the town's Literary Institute, and presented a herbarium and a group of fossils. With Spence, he helped to found the Entomological Society of London in 1833, with John Westwood as Secretary, and became its Honorary President for life. On that occasion, he presented his own cabinet of insects, collected over more than 40 years, which contained many of the specimens figured in his papers.