LOUIS WILLIAM SWETT 
The friends of Louis W. Swett were greatly shocked to 
learn of his untimely death. He was killed by lightning at 
his summer home on Baker Island, Salem Harbor, Massa- 
chusetts, July 21, 1930. 
Mr. Swett was born at Riverside, California, October 2, 
1880, and came East with his parents when about ten 
years of age* He attended the Hopkinton School, Boston, 
where he prepared for Harvard, and was a student from 
1900-1902. 
I first met Mr. Swett in 1903, when he was interested in 
Lepidoptera as a whole, but later he specialized on the 
Geometridse, describing many new species. He gave his 
first collection of Geometridse to the Museum of Compara- 
tive Zoology at Harvard in 1912, when his business did not 
give him sufficient time to devote to it. Later, however, 
with his friend Mr. S. E. Cassino, he made a second col- 
lection, and jointly they published “The Lepidopterist.” 
He was a member of the Boston Society of Natural His- 
tory, the Cambridge Entomological Club, of which he was 
president in 1911, Pi Eta Society of Harvard, etc. 
Mr. Swett was proprietor of a large dry goods store 
at Lexington, Mass., known as “The Modern Shop,” and 
also had a store at Somerville, Mass. He is survived by 
his wife, daughter and mother, to whom we extend our 
sincere sympathy. 
C. W. Johnson. 
