Ji(ne,i9i4 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 49 



butterflies not even mentioned. The Graham Institute also 

 possessed a collection of insects. It represented all orders, was 

 very incomplete even in our local species and in a very dilap- 

 idated condition. Few, other than the larger and more showy 

 species were named and subsequently it was almost useless for 

 reference. 



When the Brooklyn Historical Society moved to its present 

 quarters on Pierrepont St., about 1865, an effort was made to 

 form a collection of insects. I became very enthusiastic about the 

 project and was prepared to devote all my spare time to it, hop- 

 ing to become its curator. To my disappointment this honor was 

 conferred on Mr. Harvey J. Rich, who was too busy to give 

 much attention to it, and in poor health, dying a few years later. 

 The collection reached only its incipient stage and in due time 

 became ^ prey to vermin."^- From all this it can be readily in- 

 ferred under what disadvantages our early students were laboring. 



One may readily appreciate our delight about this time in dis- 

 covering a man of great value to us, from whom we learned much 

 about rearing specimens, etc., besides being able to buy from him 

 good insect pins,t nets, setting boards, and other entomological 

 supplies. This important personage was the late John Ackhurst, 

 who then lived in Prospect St., where now stands the anchorage 

 of Brooklyn Bridge. I shall never forget his genial, good-natured 

 greeting, " Good morning, lads," as the trio of us stepped inside 

 his door. He appeared to me then about the same as he looked 

 thirty years later, with long hair, great goggle spectacles, smooth 

 shaven, the head surmounted by a square paper cap.J He took a 

 fatherly interest in us and gave us much valuable information 

 about collecting. For more than fifty years he took pride in 

 breeding Lepidoptera, particularly rare Sphingidse and Bomby- 

 cidse, and his success in this respect induced the United States 

 Agricultural Department to send to him 100 pupae of Platysamia 



* A portion of it is still preserved in the rooms of the Historical Society, 

 and while of little value yet contains some things of interest. — Ed. 



t German entomological pins were first brought to New York by Nan- 

 ning Kloster in 1842. — Ed. 



X Mr. Ackhurst had long, flowing hair, which made him look very con- 

 spicuous. He explained to me that this was because he used great quanti- 

 ties of arsenic in his work as a taxidermist and his long hair kept the 

 poison from entering his system. — E. L. G. 



