XX The Molluscan Family Planorhidae 



In 1890, Air. Baker, as zoologist, was a member of an exploring 

 party from the Philadelphia Academy into Mexico. The travels in 

 Cuba, Yucatan, and ^Mexico afforded by this expedition had on him 

 the same broadening influence which travel has brought to all the 

 great naturalists and inspired him to consider natural faunal areas 

 instead of political units in subsequent programs of comprehensive 

 taxonomic studies. Thus his monograph on the Lymnaeidae (1911) 

 was not confined to the boundaries of the United States but encom- 

 passed a more natural zoogeographical scope of 'North and ^Middle 

 America.' and the program on the Planorbidae, results of which are 

 embodied in this volume, was extended to include even broader scope 

 in order to secure comprehensive treatment of a taxonomic unit 

 without reference to political subdivisions. After his return from 

 Mexico, Mr. Baker published his first separate book (1895), a small 

 popular work entitled 'A Naturalist in Mexico,' which wove to- 

 gether a narrative of the trip, a description of the country, and 

 scientific observations. 



An intimate correspondence with Henry A. Ward of Rochester, 

 part of which has been available to the present writer, ended in an 

 arrangement wherein Mr. Baker was to become associated (1891) as 

 Invertebrate Zoologist with the influential Ward's Natural Science 

 Establishment. Few strictly educational institutions in the early 

 history of this country have wielded the influence exerted by this 

 private concern in the training of natural scientists, especially those 

 headed toward museum work as a profession. While residing in 

 Rochester, he became a frequent visitor in the home of John Hall. 

 On June 12, 1892, he married Lillian Alay Hall who was his con- 

 stant companion until her death in 1934. 



While his employment by the Ward Establishment was primarily 

 for the identification and organization of the Ward collections of 

 Mollusca, Mr. Baker at the same time selected and organized an 

 extensive synoptic display of museum specimens representing all the 

 groups of the invertebrates, which was being prepared for exhibition 

 at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. Upan com- 

 pletion of this task, Mr. Baker accompanied the exhibit to Chicago 

 where he supervised its installation. At the close of the Exposition, 

 the Ward exhibit was purchased by Marshall Field as part of the 

 nucleus for the beginning of the Field Columbian Museum, and Mr. 

 Baker was engaged as curator in the newly established museum 

 (1894). But that same year he was chosen curator of the old, long 

 established Chicago Academy of Science, w^here he succeeded and 

 had association with men of the calibre of Robert Kennicott, William 

 Stimpson, and T. C. Chamberlin. It was here that he perfected the 

 techniques of museum display and administration and for the first 

 time had opportunity to develop an intensive program of research, 

 integrated with his professional work. Unfortunately, after about 

 two decades with the Academy, a change in administration placed 



