1974] 
Matthews — Cambridge Entomological Club 
15 
from 1900 to 1903. The average attendance at these meetings, also 
held in Scudder’s study, was between three and four. 
The Harris Club 
Just prior to 1900, another entomological club was formed, this 
time in the city of Boston. The moving force for this was Mr. H. H. 
Newcomb, an amateur lepidopterist and general insect collector. An 
organizational meeting was held on November 24, 1899, in his office 
on Court Street, Boston. The ten who were present were enthusiastic 
amateurs; most were in business or law, although a few were college 
students, not yet established professionally. W. L. W. Field, already 
a member of the Cambridge Club, was one of the ten and served as 
secretary of the new club for the three years of its existence. At 
their second meeting, the members decided on the name Harris Club, 
“in honor otf Thaddeus William Harris, eminent among early Ameri- 
can Entomologists, whose entire life was spent in the neighborhood 
of Boston.”* 
In many ways the Harris Club paralleled the earlier days of the 
Cambridge Club. From the beginning, the members agreed “that 
the organization should be as informal as possible.” The constitution 
generally expressed the same goals as that of the Cambridge Club. 
And as did its counterpart, the Harris Club had a library, but of a 
much less formal and extensive nature. They were an extremely 
enthusiastic group and held several field excursions — only in their 
case to Mt. Katahdin in Maine. By 1903 the Harris Club included 
41 local members, although the average attendance at the meetings 
for the previous year had been only 12. As Field noted in one of 
his annual reports, there had been a progressive decrease in the per- 
centage of members attending as the total membership increased. 
Field undoubtedly provided a liaison with the Cambridge Club and 
was almost certainly responsible for the suggestion that the Harris 
Club merge with the olddr organization. On January 13, 1903, Field 
and Newcomb proposed: 
“That the Harris Club be merged in the Cambridge Entomologi- 
cal Club, all members of the Harris Club of record January 13, 
1903, to be nominated on one ballot for membership in the Cam- 
bridge Entomological Club. The latter is an incorporated Club 
with a long and distinguished list of members, past and present. 
*This was not the same organization as the Harris Entomological Club, 
which was founded in 1864 as a section of the Boston Society of Natural 
History and which was discontinued in 1886. 
