This is an important natural history letter, and the original enclosure survives with it. William LeBaron of North Andover, who later became Illinois State Entomologist, wrote to Dr. Thaddeus William Harris, Librarian of Harvard and the founder of American economic entomology. LeBaron asks Harris to help identify six puzzling beetles. He describes each in careful scientific detail and encloses a card of his own pencil drawings, numbered 1 to 6. Harris’s pencil docket (“Rec’d Mar 18, 1842, answered same day”) is on the front, and a pencil note between the lines may be Harris’s suggested identification. The cover has a red North Andover CDS, a red PAID, and a manuscript 12, a double rate paid because of the enclosed card. Correspondence between two pioneer American entomologists, with the original drawings, should appeal well beyond postal history collectors. Specialist buyers in the history of science may pay more than this estimate. Old paper hinges on the back slightly affect condition.

North Andover MA 17 MAR 1842 Cambridge MA PAID 12 Stampless FL Beetle Drawings

Label Text (about 270 characters)

US North Andover MA 17 MAR 1842 to Cambridge MA. 12c PAID (double 6c rate). Red North Andover MAR 17 Ms CDS, red PAID, manuscript 12, wax seal. Stampless FL. William LeBaron to Dr. T. W. Harris, Harvard Librarian. Entomology, beetle drawings enclosed.

Summary

• Date sent: 17 March 1842 (from the postmark; the letter is dated 15 March 1842)
• Country of origin: United States
• Sent from: North Andover, Massachusetts (Essex County)
• Sent to: Cambridge, Massachusetts (Middlesex County)
• Distance: about 20 miles in a straight line, roughly 25 miles by post road
• Philatelic details:
  • Red circular datestamp “NORTH ANDOVER MAR 17 Ms.”
  • Red straightline “PAID.”
  • Manuscript “12”: twice the 6-cent rate for a single letter under 30 miles under the 1825 rate act, prepaid by the sender. The letter sheet and the enclosed card of drawings were charged as two pieces.
  • Red wax seal, intact on the flap.
  • Pencil docket on the front by the recipient: “LeBaron Rec’d Mar 18, 1842, answered same day.”
  • Embossed stationer’s mark in the corner of the letter sheet.
  • Later pencil “1812,” an incorrect date added by a later owner.
  • Old paper hinges on the back.
  • Stampless FL, with the original pencil drawing card.
• Sender: William LeBaron (1814–1876) of North Andover, a physician and amateur entomologist. He moved to Geneva, Illinois, in 1844, and from 1870 to 1875 he was Illinois State Entomologist, succeeding Benjamin D. Walsh. His annual reports on insects harmful to crops were influential.
• Receiver: Dr. Thaddeus William Harris (1795–1856), Librarian of Harvard University from 1831 to 1856, a pioneer of American entomology. His Report on the Insects of Massachusetts Injurious to Vegetation (1841) is regarded as the founding work of economic entomology in the United States. The “descriptive catalogue of the Sphinges” that LeBaron mentions was Harris’s study of North American sphinx moths, published in 1839.
• Historical interest:
  • The letter shows how American naturalists worked in the 1840s. Amateurs in country towns sent careful descriptions and drawings to the few experts, who replied with identifications and asked to see rare specimens. Harris answered the letter the day it arrived.
  • LeBaron worked from Cuvier’s Règne Animal and the classifications of Latreille and MacLeay, and he identified beetles of the families Chrysomelidae, Coccinellidae, Melolonthidae, Cleridae, Buprestidae, and others.
  • The enclosed card shows six beetles drawn in pencil, numbered to match the letter. LeBaron calls them “my first attempts at imitation.”
  • LeBaron offers to save for Harris any specimens that Harris did not already have, and Harris’s collection later became part of the collections of the Boston Society of Natural History.
  • This letter comes from the early career of a man who later shaped the agricultural science of the Midwest.
• Genealogical interest: The letter places William LeBaron at North Andover in March 1842, two years before his move to Illinois. The LeBaron family descended from Dr. Francis LeBaron of Plymouth, a well-known 17th-century settler.

Transcription

The letter is transcribed with the writer’s original spelling. Words lost at the right edge have been filled in from context, and uncertain readings are marked.

Page 1:

North Andover March 15. 1842.

My dear Sir,
The kind interest you have taken in my entomological studies, and the readiness which you have always manifested to assist me, encourage me to address to you the following epistle. Your present of your descriptive catalogue of the Sphinges, reawakened my entomological enthusiasm, which tho’ never extinguished, is sometimes thrust aside by the pressure of other business. I have occupied my leisure hours for some weeks past, in looking over my small collection of insects with the view of refering them more accurately than I had before done, to their respective families, & so far as might be to their genera. In the course of this examination I have met with some species whose classification has a good deal puzzled me, owing partly to my own inexperience and partly to the difficulty of examining dried & often imperfectly exhibited specimens. Whilst thus engaged, it occured to me that by writing to you upon the subject and giving you a concise & so far as I might be able clear description of the doubtful species, you would be able at once to clear up my difficulties. I have felt the less unwilling to address you upon the supposition of the possibility, tho’ scarcely the probability, of noticing some species which may not be in your collection. Should my descriptions be insufficient to enable you to determine the species refered to without difficulty, I hope, Sir, that you will give yourself no trouble in this matter, as I can easily wait till I may have the pleasure of a more direct communication with you by a personal interview. I have amused myself lately by attempting to draw some insects with a pencil. I believe I have succeeded in giving an idea of the outline of the insects, and I will therefore enclose a card with figures of some of the species to which I wish to refer. It is unnecessary to mention that they are my first attempts at imitation and lay no claim to accuracy of finish.
The first insect to which I will refer is numbered 1 on the card. It seems to be intermediate between Coccinella and Chrysomela and I find no generic description corresponding to it in the Règne Animal nor any other work in my possession. Its form — strongly arched above and flat beneath, & its red colour with black dots, give it very much

Page 2:

the aspect of a Coccinella, but its outline is oblong oval, the tarsi are tetramerous, and indeed most of its more important characters are unlike those of that genus. The head is very small and partly concealed under a shallow emargination of the thorax. The antennae are shorter in proportion to the length of the body than those of any Chrysomela in my collection. They are inserted near together in the middle of the face, slender at base, gradually enlarging, but pointed at the tip, thus resembling those of Cassida. The palpi are imperfectly exhibited in my specimen, but they appear to be of about equal width throughout, with the last joint sub-acute. This insect presents a remarkable combination of the characters of Cassida, Chrysomela & Coccinella. I have had this specimen several years, and have never been able to satisfy myself with regard to its situation.
The species numbered 2 on the card is one of the Melolonthidae. It approaches the rosebug in its characters. Body oblong and depressed, and clothed with minute slender scales. Nine joints in antennae, 3 in the club. Two of the palpi project & terminate in a large joint. Thorax dilated in the middle. Tarsi moderate. Claws equal & bifid. — Above green, head & thorax dusky. Beneath whitish. Legs straw coloured. The hind tibiae and tarsi black. End of abdomen scarcely exposed.
Number 3 appears to belong to Mr. McLeay’s family of Anoplognathidae, amongst the Petalocera. The epistoma is dilated in front, deflected at the sides and lapping over the edge of an elevated square plate, which may be the lobe of the maxilla, but which appears in the dried specimen to be continuous with the mentum. These two plates approach each other posteriorly, leaving however a deep notch between them. The epistoma thus dilated & deflected when taken in connection with the abovementioned plates, give to the mouth a singular appearance somewhat resembling the mouth of a funnel. The basal joint of the antennae is a triangular plate, as seen in the figure. This joint is the only vestige of an antenna on either side in my specimen. But on its anterior surface is a minute tubercle from which probably the remainder of the organ has been broken off. It is a little singular that tho’ the specimen is in other respects in perfect preservation, the two antennae should be broken off and at the same point. But I infer that this must be the case, as no other insect of this tribe presents such anomalous antennae. There is a short spine projecting between the anterior coxae, clothed with stiff hairs. Tarsal claws equal & simple. Palpi apparently cylindrical. Colour black.

Page 3:

No. 4 possesses many of the characters of the Cleridae. The head is subglobose. Thorax heart shaped, narrowed behind. Elytra of equal width each being rounded at tip forming a notch between them. Legs rather short, but 4 distinct joints in tarsi, penultimate bilobate. Antennae filiform, not serrate. The parts of the mouth seem to be small and nearly concealed in an oral cavity. Eyes slightly emarginate. The colour of this insect is dingy black. Elytra somewhat flexible.
Figure 5 I suppose to be a Clerus. It agrees with the description of Latreille’s genus Thanasimus with one important exception, namely, it has five very distinct joints in the tarsi; a character in which it differs from all the sub-genera in the “Règne animal”, except a few rare ones founded mostly on species from Brazil. — Specific description = Head, thorax, base of elytra, and under surface fulvous; remainder of elytra black with two transverse waving bands of dirty white. I also have a little species about half as large as this, exactly resembling it except that the fulvous portion of the elytra is somewhat more extensive.
No. 6 is a little insect, I believe not uncommon, found on the blackberry vine. In its cylindrical shape and the arrangement of its colours — (black, thorax copper coloured) it strongly resembles one of the Saperdae. But the antennae are very short, not reaching to the end of the thorax, filiform and very delicately & perfectly serrated, and the tarsi are pentamerous. I suppose it must be one of the Buprestidae tho’ its shape bears but little resemblance to any of the larger Buprestes in my collection.
I will not undertake any more descriptions at present, but will briefly refer to a few insects in my possession which appear to me to have, if I may so speak — a somewhat rare aspect. Amongst these I may mention a small Notoxus with horned thorax. A black Lucanus ½ an inch long found in rotten wood. An elegant little Buprestis about ¼ of an inch long — purple, with three green dots on each elytron the foremost dot being indistinct; face and inferior surface metalic green. (A pencil note between the lines here, in another hand, appears to suggest a species name; it is not fully legible.) And a pilose Lamellicorn beetle seven lines in length, with the elytra narrowed and seperated for ⅔ the length of the suture; belonging I suppose to Latreille’s division Anthobii or the modern family Glaphyridae.
I have only to say in conclusion, my dear Sir, that if in this

Continued on the address leaf:

or any future communication, I should be so fortunate as to suggest any insects not in your possession, I shall be most happy to reserve them for you.

Yours very truly — William LeBaron.

Enclosed card (pencil drawings):

Six beetles, numbered 1 to 6, drawn in pencil to match the descriptions in the letter.

Address panel:

PAID 12
Dr. T. Wm. Harris.
Librarian of Harvard University.
Cambridge.

Pencil docket on the front (by the recipient):

LeBaron
Rec’d Mar 18, 1842
Answered same day

Pencil (later note):

1812

Notes on terms:

• “Elytra” are the hard wing covers of a beetle.
• “Tarsi” are the foot segments; “tetramerous” and “pentamerous” mean four- and five-jointed.
• “Fulvous” means tawny.
• “Lines” here is an old measure of length, one-twelfth of an inch.
• The Règne Animal is Georges Cuvier’s great work on animal classification.