Page 2 October 1980 No. 26 NEW YORK SHELL CLUB NorEs 
KARL JACOBSON 
| William 
arl was at a meeting at the home of 
fics i peach serly in 1940. The Weeks’ Colle ee ae 
over a period of more than fifty years, was as — a re 
to have first met Karl. We didn't say much then ° : - is in. 
terest in land snails and my interest in marine mo Si: Se a on't 
recall meeting him very often until I received a le sie pa one 
call in 1947 or 1948, relative to getting together — ~ rid other 
interested collectors for the formation of a shell c pio oe of 
this meeting and subsequent spied oer eypirert iH 
The origin of the "New York She se Ee oe 
idea. He took care of typing, printing, : 
the first few years. ieivab his interest in getting a variety of 
i The Club activ- 
apers to publish that got me started in writing. 
teiés began to bring various friends together regularly. But Karl 
and I and our families met much more frequently. This continued 
through most of the twenty or so years that I remained in New York, 
The first A.M.U. meeting we attended together was at Cambridge in 
1952, and we attended the memorable 1954 meeting in New Hampshire 
with our families, It was in the summer of 1955, I believe, that 
Betty Wistar, a Philadelphia collector, asked Karl to auction her 
shells for her. It was perhaps the first notable collection of 
land and sea shells to be offered at auction since the 19th century, 
Karl asked me to help him with the sale because of my more intimate 
knowledge of the rarity and commercial value of shells. This equal 
partnership continued for several auctions of Miss Wistar's collec- 
TLoné 
The next memorable occasion that I recall was our attendance at the 
joint meeting of the eastern and western divisions of the American 
Malacological Union in San Diego in 1956. For me it was especially 
important, since I then decided that I would some day live in San 
Diego - not too far from Balboa Park (and I'm still here within 
sight of the Museum and the Park). 
The almost weekly social get-togethers with our families, the meet- 
ings of the New York Shell Club, the gatherings for putting together 
the "Notes" at my home in Valley Stream, and attendance at the A.I.U. 
conventions, were long standing influential events in our lives as 
well as those of our wives, Pinky and Rose. 
Karl asked me to illustrate his "Shells of the New York City Area" 
(Argonaut Books, 1961). The book, in its finished form, was co- 
authored by Bill Emerson and the whole project turned out to be 2 
ete m Lag ahigencgs: receive any remuneration until ten years 
ater when e book was reprinted by Dover P 
Cape Cod to Cape May." eee aes tT et ee 
To the end, Karl retained his scientific interest in the study of 
land mollusks, especially those from Cuba. These studios seamed 
in his numerous published papers on th 
snails. pap e taxonomy of Cuban land 
