The story begins when I was around 12 years old. My
life-long passion for insects was turning into a dedicated study with a focus
on butterflies and the start of a collection. My first mentor was Mr. Terry
Ely, a friend from church and the local USDA plant quarantine officer. Terry
was primarily interested in moths but had a collection of many insects from all
over the world and gave me tips on how to preserve the bugs I was starting to
collect. He gave me my first Banded Alder Borer beetle (Rosalia funebris),
my first California Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis californica) butterfly, a
giant grasshopper he collected in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and any other interesting
insects he came across in his work. When I found a dying female poplar sphinx (Pachysphinx
occidentalis) in my backyard that was tattered but so exciting to
14-year-old me, Terry brought me a perfect specimen less than a month later
that he had found while working in eastern Washington. Throughout these few
years, Terry told me stories of his childhood, that his family would take trips
across the country, that his mother had corresponded and traded butterflies and
artifacts with people all over the world, including a prince, and that Terry
had collected a lot in New Hampshire. I loved hearing the stories, but as a
teenager I didn’t think to ask questions and learn more details about the
collection I was hearing of.
One day in the summer of 2001, Terry told me that he was
retiring and moving to Arizona, that his mother’s collection had already been
moved long distances at least twice and was in rough shape, that he couldn’t
see doing that again, and that he knew I would treasure and care for it, if I
was willing? I was shaking with excitement and don’t remember much else
of that conversation, but with permission from my parents, the collection was
mine! We met at his office and I was blown away as we emptied a large metal
cabinet with drawer after drawer full of butterflies and moths. Fifteen
drawers, 18x22 inches each of solid oak with glass lids. I was told that the
cabinet and drawers had been surplus from a university back east.
Antique cabinet and oak drawers from Terry Ely. |
Once home, I
began the painstaking task of evaluating the specimens and repairing everything
as best as I could. Many specimens were damaged from previous moves, a little dermestid
beetle damage, and several rusty pins and moldy specimens from exposure to
humidity at some time in the past. I replaced as many pins as I could, gently cleaned
off dried mold with a soft paintbrush, and became an expert at carefully
matching up and gluing broken wings and bodies. Most of the specimens didn’t
have any identification labels, only general locations and dates at best, thus
I had to comb through books to identify the hundreds of butterflies, organizing
them into taxonomic groups, rapidly widening my ability to recognize key
features helpful to securing an identification. A couple years went by and then
I received news that Terry had passed away suddenly at his home in Arizona. Although
I lost a mentor, a new chapter opened when in the same year I met Jonathan
Pelham, who quickly filled the role of mentor and later colleague. However, without
Terry to ask questions of, I had to piece together the history of my collection
solely on his few stories and the tidbits I could gather from the specimen
labels.
In the early years, internet searches came up empty for
Terry Ely, his mother, Rachel, and a few of the names on the specimen labels.
Over time I came to recognize certain labels as coming from the same person,
either by the handwriting, the location and date, or the style of label. This
allowed me to piece together little vignettes of history since one label might
include a person’s name with a date and location that matched other labels with
the same data but no name. One specimen still in a paper triangle bears the
stamp of “J. C. Hopfinger, Brewster, Wash.” with handwriting in pencil of “E.
anicia hopfingeri”, which I’ve been told matches Hopfinger’s handwriting
seen in other collections. Considering that Hopfinger traded widely it is no
surprise one of his specimens ended up in Rachel Ely’s collection.
Euphydryas anicia hopfingeri specimen from J. C. Hopfinger. |
One piece of the puzzle continued to confuse me: Terry had
talked about New Hampshire so much that I had assumed that’s where he grew up,
yet many of the specimens with labels in Rachel’s handwriting were from
Wisconsin. Recently my curiosity climbed again and I started searching the
internet for any trace of Rachel’s history or information on some of the other
names on the labels. I was able to find a few tidbits on two of the names, both
associated with the University of New Hampshire, but it was my mom who had the
brilliant idea to search for Rachel Ely along with the keyword “lepidoptera”
instead of the “butterflies” or “New Hampshire” that I had been trying. Up
popped a link to an old Lepidopterists' Society archive and the floodgates were opened! Turns
out that Rachel was a member of the Lepidopterists' Society from 1951 to at least 1955, first under
her married name of Mrs. Frank Ely and then as Mrs. Rachel Ely after her
husband passed away. Through the archive I discovered she was actually from
Endeavor, Wisconsin and after searching with those additional keywords, I came
across a newspaper article (Wisconsin State Journal, November 23, 1952, section
2, page 13) that talked about this extraordinary family of Rachel, 13-year-old
Terry and his younger sister Cindy, who lived in a house that was so like a
museum of natural history artifacts that the local schools would take kids to
visit it. The article has pictures with some of the butterfly specimens in the
background, and I easily recognized ten specimens that are in my
collection, and several others that resemble specimens in my collection but are too small to positively identify to a particular specimen. The article also mentions that she traded curios with many foreign
collectors, including an African prince, corroborating my memory of what Terry
told me.
Newspaper photo of some of the Ely Collection in 1952. Some of the butterflies within the white outlines (middle/right) are easily recognizable as specimens Terry gave me, see below. |
Ely Collection specimens seen within the white frame on the right in the newspaper image. |
Ely Collection specimens seen within the white frame on the left in the newspaper image. |
Further searching revealed that Rachel wrote a short note on
finding and rearing Hemileuca maia in Wisconsin that was published in
the LepSoc News in 1954. Learning that she was a member of LepSoc at the same
time as J. C. Hopfinger, I wondered who else might have been a member she had
traded specimens with. Several of my specimens are from Malta, all with
typewritten labels on glassine paper, so I started with those. According to the
LepSoc membership lists from 1951-1955, the only member from Malta was Anthony
Valletta. A quick internet search showed he lived from 1908 to 1988, was a
Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, had the largest collection of
butterflies and other insects in Malta, and wrote several nature books
including The Butterflies of the Maltese Islands.
Other names on specimen labels have ties to the University
of New Hampshire, which appears to have been where Terry went to college, although I haven't been able to confirm this. Most of the
moths in my collection were collected by him there circa 1963. I
suspect that some New Hampshire moths with older dates were given to him by his
university acquaintances, including a handful of specimens with dates ranging
from 1889 to 1919!
In an incredible twist of the story, I also discovered a tie
to my own northwest Lepidopterist connections. Around 2006 or 2007, I began
attending the Northwest Lepidopterists’ Workshop in Corvallis (OSU) each fall,
where I met Ann Albright. Her husband Ray had passed away a few years prior and she was
giving away hundreds of papered specimens from their many collecting trips. I
jumped at the chance to add to my collection and brought home several dozen
specimens from Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Arizona and elsewhere. All had
typewritten labels with handwritten species identifications. During my recent
searches through the LepSoc membership directories, I noticed that Ray Albright
of Dayton, Oregon was listed as a member during the same time as Rachel Ely. I
remembered that I have some specimens from Oregon in Rachel’s collection and
seemed to recall Dayton as a location on one of them. Sure enough, a papered
specimen of Coenonympha tullia from 1957 has “Dayton, Ore” written in
pencil. Likewise, a specimen of Speyeria zerene gloriosa from O’brien,
OR in 1958 and one of Parnassius clodius baldur from Mount St. Helens,
WA in 1956 bear the same handwriting. The handwriting looked very similar to
the specimens I had obtained from Ann. I sent the images to her and she
confirmed that it does look like Ray’s handwriting, that he collected in those
locations, but these were dated before she knew him so she couldn’t confirm
if Ray traded with Rachel or if Rachel might have obtained these from a mutual
acquaintance.
Continuing my investigation into the Ely Collection, I ran a
search for “Rachel Ely” on SCAN (scan-bugs.org), which turned up five specimens
in the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM):
- Smerinthus jamaicensis, July 1952 (has a note that reads “this specimen photographed for Sphingidae of Wis.”)
- Dolba hyloeus, June 29, 1958 (has a note that reads “this specimen photographed for Sphingidae of Wis.”)
- Hemileuca maia, October 4, 1953 (x2)
- Catocola whitneyi, July 1958
I reached out to the collection manager to
request images or more information about those specimens and she emailed me images several days later. In
addition to the labels that looked exactly like Rachel’s labels in my
collection, the specimens also had labels stating they were from the William E.
Sieker collection, confirming the following details.
While waiting for the photos, I searched for the book Sphingidae
of Wisconsin without any luck, so I started reading about the museum,
hoping to pick up any other clues. I quickly recognized the name of one of
their major donors, William E. Sieker, and how he had one of the most complete
collections of worldwide Sphingidae which was donated to their museum. I remembered
Rachel had mentioned him in the Hemileuca maia note published in the
LepSoc news: she and Sieker netted a bunch of H. maia after she and Terry
had found numerous maia larvae crossing the road earlier in the season. In
researching more about Sieker, I learned that he founded the Wisconsin
Entomological Society (WES). Then I came across his obituary and in the same 1982
WES newsletter there was a list of upcoming speakers, one of whom was Michael
Collins, a Saturniidae researcher I know. I emailed him to see if he could shed
any light on the Sphingidae of Wisconsin book or if he might have even
known Sieker. He responded that while he had briefly corresponded with Bill
(Sieker) about silk moths, they had never met, but he put me in contact with
Les Ferge from Wisconsin. Les informed me that Bill mentored him from 1971
until Bill’s death, Bill spoke of Rachel occasionally and lamented her tragic early
death from an automobile accident. According to Les, the Sphingidae of
Wisconsin was a manuscript Bill was working on until his death, but it was
never published. Les also suggested that my sphinx moth specimens from Door County,
Wisconsin were actually collected by Bill, who owned a vacation cottage in Door
County. He said that Bill would run lights and collect moths up there and
frequently traded or gave specimens to people, so it is more likely that he and
Rachel traded specimens rather than Rachel collecting the Door County specimens
herself. This would explain the five specimens of Rachel’s in the MPM, which
were donated to the museum as part of Bill Sieker’s collection after his death.
Ely Collection contributors are as follows with information found through public records searches, LepSoc archives or museum websites:
Sphinx moths in Rachel's collection that were presumably collected by Bill Sieker in Door County, Wisconsin. |
Ely Collection contributors are as follows with information found through public records searches, LepSoc archives or museum websites:
- Rachel Ely: 1911 (WI) – 1959 (NH), lived in Endeavor, Marquette County, WI.
- Terry Ely: 1939 (WI) – 2004 (AZ), also lived in NH, ME, WA.
- William E. (Bill) Sieker: 1911 Sep 5 – 1982 Jan 22, lived in Madison, WI and had a vacation home in Bailey's Harbor, Door County, WI, knew Rachel, traded a few specimens and collected with her.
- Auburn E. Brower: 1898 May 22 – 1994 Apr 15, lived in Augusta, Maine, associated with Maine Forest Service (which is noted as a "sister institution" of University of New Hampshire), LepSoc member same time as Rachel. I also found a paper on the Lepidoptera of Maine that has Terry Ely listed as the source of one of the records.
- Robert L. Blickle: 1913 Nov 12 – 2002 Dec 30, University of New Hampshire, retired from UNH in 1979, would have been a professor at the time Terry apparently attended.
- William F. Fiske: 1876 – [disappeared in Africa in 1913], studied at the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (later University of New Hampshire), during the 1890s, and became an entomologist. He was the assistant entomologist for the New Hampshire Experimental Station, 1897-1901; assistant entomologist for the state of Georgia, 1901-1903; assistant in forest investigations, 1903-1906; in charge of the Gypsy Moth Laboratory (Melrose Highlands, Mass.), 1906 May-1913 January; and United States Department of Agriculture, special investigator of sleeping sickness in Africa for joint commission of Royal Society and British Colonial Office, 1913- . He was also a member of many societies and clubs. He apparently disappeared while on his investigation in Africa.
- Clarence Moores (C. M.) Weed: 1864 Oct 5 – 1947 Jul 20, Professor of Zoology and Entomology in the NH College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Entomologist of the NH Experiment Station, and Associate Editor of the American Naturalist. Bachelor of Science, Michigan Agricultural College, 1883, Master of Science, 1884. Doctor of Science, Ohio State University, 1890. Entomologist and botanist, Ohio Experiment Station, 1888-1891. Professor zoology and entomology, 1891-1904, entomologist in Experiment Station, 1891-1904, New Hampshire College Agriculture and Mechanics Arts; instructor, 1904-1922, principal, 1922-1932, president 1932-1935. Associated with S. Albert Shaw and William F. Fiske in publications.
- Charles P. Kimball: 1897-1982, his collection is cited as being acquired by the Museum of Comparative Zoology – Harvard. Weed & Fiske publication Butterflies of New Hampshire mentions some records from "Kimball," uncertain if this is the same person.
- S. Albert Shaw: 1856 Aug 23 – 1944 Apr 6, his collection was donated to the University of New Hampshire and their website states that he was an active collector of insects, especially Diptera, from 1890 until 1934. C. M. Weed mentions him as a colleague in publications.
- Wallace J. Morse: 1916 – 1999, affiliated with the University of New Hampshire (possibly a professor when Terry attended?), his collection of Odonata is listed as a major component of UNH collections.
- John C. Hopfinger: 1888 Mar 30 – 1961 Jun 7, born in Kastin Austria, came to the US in 1906 and lived in Brewster, WA. LepSoc member same time as Rachel.
- Walter H. Freeman: Camarillo, CA, LepSoc member same time as Rachel.
- Anatole S. Loukashkin: 1902 Apr 20 – 1988 Oct 6, born in Liaoian, China (father worked for the Chinese Eastern Railway). He worked as a curator of the Museum of the Society for the Study of Manchuria in the 1930s. Upon arrival in the United States in 1941, he transferred his skills to the California Academy of Sciences. One moth specimen in Ely collection has a label with his name and “Korea” written on it.
- F. H. Schade: on a Danaus erippus specimen from Paraguay, likely refers to Dr. Francisco Schade who apparently has a namesake zoological museum in Paraguay, no other info found (he was not a LepSoc member). Based on the trend of Rachel apparently communicating with fellow LepSoc members, it is likely that she obtained this and other South American butterflies and moths via trade with one or a few LepSoc members rather than from Schade himself.
- Anthony Valletta: 1908 Dec 21 – 1988 Dec 8, lived in Birkirkara, Malta, well known educationalist, lepidopterist and naturalist; Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. Published several small guide books for the Maltese Islands, LepSoc member same time as Rachel.
- Dr. Hermann Wilcke: Kössen, Tirol, Austria, LepSoc member same time as Rachel.
- Josef Wolfsberger: 1918 Jul 5 – 2001 Jul 27, if my German translation is correct, he was the curator of Lepidoptera at the Zoologische Staatssammlung München = Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, and a well-known collector. I wonder if Rachel reached out to Dr. Wilcke through LepSoc and obtained specimens from him, and he might have given her one from Wolfsberger.
Colias harfordi collected by Walter H. Freeman |
Sphinx moth collected by Josef Wolfsberger |
Danaus erippus (Southern Monarch, a different species than the Monarch) collected in Paraguay by F. H. Schade |
Colias palaeno from Wurtemburg Germany in 1933, no collector given, handwriting looks like Rachel's, so this is probably something she got in a paper triangle and copied the data to a new label. |
If anyone reading this recognizes the names or may have other pieces of the
puzzle, please contact me.
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