108 PROCEEDINGS ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



remained active and alert in body and mind until the 16th of 

 last February, when he fell on the stairs in his home, and 

 died at the Emergency Hospital on the 18th of February, 

 1910, 89 years of age. 



Henry Ulke was a many-sided man; a portrait painter by 

 profession, a talented musician in his leisure hours, a most 

 diligent collector of beetles on all occasions, and a philoso- 

 pher in every relation of life. 



As a portrait painter he will long be remembered, for on 

 the walls of the White House and many other official buildings 

 hang his canvases of presidents, cabinet officers, and other 

 distinguished public men. He became known as the "Painter 

 of Presidents," and was a friend of Lincoln and of Grant. 



As a musician he was devoted to the German classics. 

 During the annex meetings of our Society, whenever a piano 

 was convenient Mr. Ulke treated the members to a masterful 

 rendition of Richard Wagner's Pilgrim's Chorus from Tann- 

 hauser; and it was amid the subdued strains of this noble 

 composition that the dead body of Ulke was carried to its rest- 

 ing place at Oak Hill Cemetery. 



As a philosopher he took a cheerful and healthful view of 

 life, and was always a genial companion. In fact, as a com- 

 panion he was unexcelled. He had the widest range of ideas, 

 a keen humor, and an uncommon fund of anecdote. The 

 range of his mind was broad and on the whole philosophical. 

 He was intolerant to the last degree of sham, and his indig- 

 nation when discussing false doctrines was beautiful to be- 

 hold. He was quick of mind, and conversation never flagged 

 when Ulke was present. Idea followed idea in quick succes- 

 sion, often it is true, only half-expressed, but showing the 

 rapid-fire quality of his mind. 



But it was as an entomologist, the model collector, the Nes- 

 tor of coleopterology in the United States, that we knew him. 

 Ulke had taken up entomology, not as study, but as a recrea- 

 tion, yet even from the first he was drawn more to the scien- 

 tific aspect of the subject, and his knowledge of species was of 

 immense value to his life-long friends Drs. Leconte and Horn, 

 and to other workers in descriptive coleopterology. Being an 



