288 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 6 



Obituary 



MARY ESTHER MURTFELDT 



Mary Esther Murtfeldt was the eldest daughter of the late 

 E. W. Murtfeldt and Esther Murtfeldt. She was born in New York 

 and there as a child she suffered the serious illness which left a slight 

 paralysis so that in all her after life she was restricted in her walking, 

 otherwise she was robust and her physical infirmity seemed only to 

 intensify her mental powers. With her family she moved to Rockford, 

 111., where she obtained such education at Rockford College as books 

 could give. In 1869, the family settled in St. Louis and in 1871 re- 

 moved to Kirkwood, Mo., a suburb about thirty miles west of St. 

 Louis which offered special facilities for her father's business as an 

 agricultural writer and publisher. 



Coming into contact with Dr. C. V. Riley furnished a new inspira- 

 tion to Miss Murtfeldt's entomological studies and placed at her 

 disposal an entomological library of considerable size. Only those of 

 us who prosecuted entomological studies at that time know how much 

 we were all hampered by lack of entomological literature. Of the 

 students who were active at or near St. Louis at this time. Prof. C. V. 

 Riley, Otto Lugger, Miss Murtfeldt, Mr. Theo Pergande, Mr. Schuster 

 and Mr. Monell, all acquired as years went on a certain amount of 

 entomological eminence and this was largely due to the accessibility 

 of Professor Riley's library and collections. 



Miss Murtfeldt died February 23, 1913, at the age of about 65 years, 

 heart disease ending her career after a short illness. Many honors 

 crowned her successful studies. She was elected a fellow of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the advancement of science, an honorary member 

 of the St. Louis Academy of Science and a member of the Wednesday 

 Club of St. Louis. 



Cornell considered itself fortunate in owning one of Miss Murtfeldt's 

 collections of moths and offered her a degree for meritorious work in 

 natural science. 



At the time of her decease she was associate editor of Farm Progress, 

 a biweekly journal issued by the St. Louis Republic, the principle 

 Democratic daily of St. Louis. She also pu])lished under the auspices 

 of the State Horticultural Society an introduction to elementary 

 entomology, intended as an introduction to the more formal treatises 

 of Packard and Comstock 



Her first publication was in the Rural New Yorker 1873 entitled 

 "Women and Science" followed shortly by a paper on the value of 

 natural science for the Education of Women in 1874 before the Women's 



