146 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [April, '14 



a leader of men. At the outbreak of the Civil War he wished 

 to join the Union ranks, but it was not till 1863 that parental 

 consent was obtained. Within a month after his enlistment he 

 was made a sergeant, and later fought with such personal valor 

 in an artillery regiment, that he was made a first lieutenant at 

 the age of 19 and placed in charge of a battery. 



After the war he went to Antioch College, in Ohio, and later 

 to the Law School in Albany, New York, where he was admit- 

 ted to the bar. In 1870 he enrolled in the medical course, at 

 Ann Arbor, Michigan, being awarded the degree of Doctor of 

 Medicine in 1872. 



Fitted for both the professions of law and medicine, Dr. 

 Peckham decided to follow neither of the two. but took up 

 the teaching of Biology in the East Division High School, then 

 the only one in Milwaukee. 



In 1880 he married' Elizabeth Gifford ; and from that period 

 date practically all of Dr. Peckham's researches, most of them 

 collaborations with his devoted wife. Three children, now 

 living, proved the blessing of their union. 



About 1888 Dr. Peckham was appointed principal of the 

 high school in which he taught. Four years later, in 1891, he 

 was made Superintendent of Public Instruction, which office 

 he held till 1897, when he accepted the office of Director of 

 the Milwaukee Public Library, where he remained till his re- 

 tirement, in 1910. 



In dealing with the work of Dr. Peckham, we cannot sepa- 

 rate therefrom the work of his wife and collaborator. From 

 the time of their marriage these two are inseparably linked in 

 all phases of their work, in their researches, in their travels, 

 in their very thoughts. Scientifically, their researches followed 

 two definite lines — each, in a way, logically the outcome of the 

 other, that of psychology of spiders and wasps, and that of 

 taxonomy of spiders. 



In taxonomy the Peckhams dwelt exclusively with rtie 

 Attidae-group of spiders ; the first of their many papers on 

 the subject appeared early in the eighties and was followed by 

 annual or biennial contributions of various length, the chief 



