wMr, Usticke's house has been sold, 
s takes place next Saturday, 
d make arrangements to get 
from St. Croix, informing us, 
and the auction of the household content 
If you want any of the shells, you shoul 
them out of there before then." 
rn found me on the 8 a.m. flight bound for St. 
hin iangeiecd pari a Hovey Street, I was shown into the shell house 
where I found four rooms of shells! Two rooms contained specimen 
shells, arranged in cabinets of drawers, and several glass cabinets 
contained displays of large shells, mostly of pan yenean onLeia. 3 
The remaining two rooms contained cartons and file cabdine Ag° u- 
plicates (such as he frequently prought to AMU conventions or 
give-aways). The auctioneer had numbered the cabinets themselyes, 
which were to be sold at auction. The trustee told me, Since you 
seem most interested in the things in the drawers, start with those, 
and leave the big shells for the auction." 
Of prime interest to the Museum was the preservation of the types. 
In his publications, Mr. Usticke had proposed some 100 - 120 new 
taxa, and in one of his papers (1971) he had stated, "All holotypes 
are at present segregated in the Nowell-Usticke collection, where 
they may be inspected. It is my intention to deposit these later 
in a mainland museum." 
First I located and packed the "types." As I had brought along 
copies of his papers, I knew what to look for. Once the types were 
accounted for, I began to open drawers and check over the rest of 
the collection. Save for one Riker mount of Florida Liguus, alavof 
it was marine, and with the accent on Western Atlantic shells. 
Most Caribbean shells were represented by extensive suites and sets 
of growth series of a given species. Gordon had been on virtually 
every island in the West Indies, and had picked up shells to prove 
it. While many of the shells were beach collected, they were well 
documented and are scientifically valuable for the locality data. 
Many of the better shells as well as the delicate ones were packed 
to be brought back to New York: Chitons, scaphopods, Epitoniun, 
Conus, Muricidae, Calliostoma, marginellids, Mitra, ‘erie, Janthina, 
volutes, etc. His collection of "“limpets" was superb, as were his 
minute shells, such as Tricolia, Caecidae, Melanella, and other al- 
most microscopic shells, housed in tiny plastic boxes. 
Of bivalves, some of the fragile, rare, and small ones were selected 
for special handling: Spondylus americanus from Martinique, magnifi- 
cent Pinna carnea and an enormous specimen of Pinna rudis (from 
Crete) were hand-carried back, along with a Riker mount of rare 
Florida Liguus. 
For years he had visited Florida, and there were dredged shells a- 
plenty from Tom McGinty, Jim Moore, Dan Steger, and Jim Donovan. 
About a decade ago, when Nick Katsaras and Tony D'Attilio handled 
the Grunzig shell collection, Gordon had sent in the winning bid for 
the specimen of Conus bullatus. I found it with Grunzig's and 
Nick's labels still accompanying it; now it "comes home to roost." 
In addition to the five cartons and suitcases 
of specimens brought 
back on the plane, twelve more cartons of shells eortassiiae Strombus, 
Thais, Cassis, naticids, Turbo, Nerita, Astraea, Turritella, Bursa, 
Cymatium, Vasum, Oliva, etc., are being sent via sea freight. 
