PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 1 K^ 



conchologists his memory \vill always be grateful, since he was 

 the first to illustrate a work on American mollusks with the beau- 

 tiful engravings on copper, which were the product of Lawson's 

 burin. These illustrations, though issued as early as 1S40, are 

 as fine as anything which can be found in the literature to the 

 present day. Haldeman was short and thickset, with a very 

 peculiar voice, piercing dark eyes, and a pleasant and unaffected 

 manner. He was in easv circumstances, and the freedom wdiich 

 this gave him resulted in a wide and somewhat desultory range 

 of study, and heightened some personal peculiarities of mind. 



Timothy Abbott Conrad. 



Distinguished among conchologists and paleontologists alike 

 was Timothy Abbott Conrad, born in New Jersey in 1S03, who 

 died at Trenton Aug. 9, 1877- Information in regard to him I 

 have found rather difficult to obtain, but it would seem that he 

 was always interested in the natural sciences, especially geology 

 and paleontology, and in 1S37 ^^'^'^ appointed one of the geolo- 

 gists to the State of New York, and pi"epared the report for that 

 year. He was paleontologist to the survey in 1S38-41. He pre- 

 pared paleontological reports on the collections of the U. vS. 

 exploring expedition under Wilkes, of Lynch's U. S. expedition 

 to the Dead Sea. the Mexican boundary survey, and some of the 

 Pacific Railway explorations. He never married, and during the 

 latter part of his life lived on a small property near Trenton, 

 coming into Philadelphia frequently to pursue his work at the 

 Academy. He was of spare proportions, rather shy and reserved, 

 wrote an abominable hand, and was very careless about his letters, 

 which were largely on scraps of paper without date or location. 

 He drew many of his own plates on stone, and his peculiar style 

 of illustration is very recognizable. Though his contributions to 

 science were multitudinous and long continued, his native care- 

 lessness, brief diagnoses, and errors of date and citation gave his 



