VOL. 54, NO. 1, JANUARY 1978 
39 
years. In Missouri the St. Louis physician and lepidopterist Dr. E.P. 
Meiners collected the letters and writings of several early entomolo¬ 
gists (Remington, 1962) and purchased some of Van Duzee’s corres¬ 
pondence. Upon Meiners’ death in 1960, these letters were incor¬ 
porated into the holdings of the University of Missouri, Columbia. 
Through the courtesy of W.R. Enns in the Department of Entomology, 
I obtained copies of letters written by Rev. Wirtner to Van Duzee, 
many on small, ruled tablet paper. However, only two of Mr. Van 
Duzee’s replies to Father Modestus were located. Much of the 
missing correspondence (20 letters) was obtained from the Archives 
of the California Academy of Sciences. I have deposited copies of the 
Wirtner-Van Duzee letters in the Center for the History of Entomology 
at the Pennsylvania State University. 
The Wirtner-Van Duzee Letters 1 
Father Modestus first wrote to Mr. Van Duzee in late 1899 when he 
was stationed at St. Boniface Church near Pittsburgh and Van Duzee 
was librarian at the Grosvenor Public Library, Buffalo, New York (1). 
Both were 38 years of age. During the early years of their correspon¬ 
dence, Rev. Wirtner addressed Mr. Van Duzee as “Dear Sir,” but 
beginning in 1907 he used the salutation “Dear Friend.” Van Duzee 
initially addressed Father Modestus as “Dear Sir,” then used “My 
dear Sir” or “My dear Dr. Wirtner” in later letters. Although the tone of 
his letters to Wirtner was formal, he gave encouragement to the 
priest and offered to assist him at any time with his studies on Penn¬ 
sylvania Hemiptera (2). 
Acquiring the Literature. — In his first letter (1) Rev. Wirtner expres¬ 
sed his wish to accumulate the literature pertaining to Hemiptera and 
that he would like to receive papers issued by the Buffalo Society of 
Natural History. In his next letter (3) Father Modestus enclosed $.75 
for copies of two papers by Van Duzee and indicated he would gladly 
purchase other of Van Duzee’s descriptions and revisions. Mr. Van 
Duzee replied that the Society’s officers would not sell Bulletins at 
less than $1 but that he would sell him his “extras” for $.75 (4). He 
sent Rev. Wirtner a list of all reprints available at prices ranging from 
$.05 to $.75 (5). Wirtner returned Van Duzee’s letter, checking titles of 
14 papers and enclosing a postal order for $2.26 (6). 
Enthusiasm for Collecting and Exchange of Specimens. — As an avid 
insect collector, Father Modestus sometimes grew impatient for 
spring to arrive. In 1904 he wrote his friend in Buffalo: “I hope that 
spring weather will soon show itself so as to do some more collect¬ 
ing.” (7). After a poor summer for collecting, he would express his 
disappointment to Mr. Van Duzee (8,9). 
Van Duzee occasionally wrote about his collecting trips (10), but 
more obvious in his correspondence was his keen desire to acquire 
‘Numbers in parentheses in text refer to the Wirtner—Van Duzee letters listed following Literature Cited. 
