142 THE NAUTILUS. 



ELIZABETH LETSON BRYAN, sC. D. 



Elizabeth Letson Bryan died on February 28th at her home 

 in Honolulu, of an organic heart affection after an illness of 

 nearly eight months. 



Mrs. Bryan was born April 9, 1874, at Griffin's Mills, Erie 

 Co., New York, the only child of Augustus F. and Nellie Webb 

 Letson. She was a direct descendant from CJovernor Bradford, 

 first governor of Massachusetts, and was a member of the May- 

 flower Society of New York. She early became interested in 

 natural history, especially conchology. In 1892 she entered 

 upon her long service in the BufiFalo Society of Natural Sciences, 

 of which she became Director in 1899, finally retiring, after a 

 connection of seventeen years, upon her marriage to Professor 

 William Alanson Bryan in 1909. This long period was inter- 

 rupted by several years given to study in the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the United States National 

 Museum. 



In 1899 the Conchological Society of Buffalo was organized 

 by her, and a new period of local enthusiasm for the study of 

 mollusks began. In 1906 Alfred University conferred the hon- 

 orary degree of Doctor of Science. She was a member of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Con- 

 chological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, and various 

 other scientific bodies. 



Dr. Letson' s publications relate chiefly to the mollusks of 

 New^ York, the more extensive being a Check List of the Mol- 

 lusca of New York, Bull. 341, N. Y. State Education Depart- 

 ment, 1905; Post-Pliocene Fossils of the Niagara River Gravels, 

 published in a Bulletin of the State Museum, 1901; a partial 

 list of the shells found in Erie and Niagara counties and the 

 Niagara frontier. Bull. Buffalo Soc. Nat. Sci., IX, 1909. At 

 the time of her marriage to Professor Bryan, of the College of 

 Hawaii, and her removal to Honolulu, she was working on a 

 monograph of the New York MoUusca. 



In Honolulu Mrs. Bryan engaged ardently in the collection 



