Facsimile Draft 
1 
Dated Feb. 9, 1955 
Dr. Edward F. Knipling mailed by Carmichael's 
Chief, Entomology Research Branch office. 
United States Department of Agriculture 
Plant Industry Station 
Beltsviile, Maryland 
Dear Dr. Knipling: 
The Smithsonian Institution is undertaking a brief reconnaissance of the 
invertebrate terrestrial and aquatic life of the Belgian Congo under the 
auspices of the Smithsonian-Bredin Exploration Fund, recently established by 
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Bredin, of Greenville, Delaware. The lower forms of 
insect life are on this occasion our especial interest, along with the 
crustacean life of the region. The latter will be sought after and studied 
by Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, our Head Curator of Zoology, >rt^o will be our repre- 
sentative on this expedition. A photographic record of field observations 
and operations is to be kept b?/ Dr. Roy Lyman Sexton of Washington, D. C. , 
who will also serve as medical officer to the group. 
Your Dr. Edward W. Baker is well known to us as one of the foremost 
authorities on the Acarina, a relatively little known group of organisms, 
so far as Africa is concerned, of which the scientific and economic importance 
has only been recognized in recent years. For these reasons we would like 
very much to have him as a member of a party of five which will be sent to 
the Congo for a period of about thirteen weeks from March 2h, 1955 to about 
the 20th of June, 1955, Washington to Washington. The Smithsonian 
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Institution iS' prepared to defray the cost of Dr. Baker's transportation to 
and from Africa and his travel and subsistence while on that continent. 
