NO. 3 CASEY COLLECTION OF COLEOPTERA BUCHANAN 3 



Colonel Casey died February 3, 1925, and the microscope he had 

 used throughout his long entomological career was buried with him. 

 His large and valuable entomological and conchological collections, 

 each with its comprehensive library, were left to the United States 

 National Museum. His other property was left to Mrs. Casey for 

 life, the estate to be given eventually to three scientific societies, the 

 National Academy of Sciences, the New York Academy of Sciences, 

 and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Mrs. Casey was named • 

 sole executor. 



The Casey collection of Coleoptera was transported by automobile 

 from the Casey apartment by H. S. Barber and E. A. Chapin and 

 was stored for a short time in a tower room of the Old Museum 

 building; later it was transferred to a room in the Natural History 

 building where it remains, Casey's entomological library, consisting 

 of about 900 volumes and many separates, accompanied the beetle 

 collection, and the two items now form a compact and accessible unit 

 for research on matters connected with Casey's work. 



The collection as received was housed in about 260 boxes of the 

 Schmitt type, contained in wooden cabinets. The specimens themselves 

 were clean, well mounted, and in good condition. In general, the 

 series of the dififerent species were clearly segregated, the first speci- 

 men bearing the name label, the others grouped after it in the con- 

 ventional manner. Because of the uniformity of mounts, the unusually 

 small locality labels, and the precise alignment of material, Casey was 

 able to get an astonishingly large number of specimens in some of 

 the boxes. His manual skill in handling material gave to parts of the 

 collection a deceptive appearance of ample spacing, but the abnormal 

 compression immediately became evident when attempts were made 

 to remove or to replace individual specimens, and showed the im- 

 practicability of allowing students the privilege of studying the collec- 

 tion in the original boxes. 



The uniformity of mounts, so conspicuous a feature of the collection 

 as a whole, is due to a practice Casey followed for a good many years ; 

 besides preparing the considerable quantities of material he himself 

 collected, he remounted all specimens received from correspondents. 

 In Memoir 7, page 35, 1916, he speaks of careful mounting as a 

 " prime necessity ", even though such curatorial work " absorbs a 

 very large proportion of all the time available for such [research] 

 studies in the daily routine of life, which flows along and ebbs away 

 with ever increasing speed ". Suggestions as to the proper mounting 



