P. J. Darlington, Jr.
Obituary—Percy Gardner Bolster.
Psyche 40:87-88, 1933.

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Psyche, 1933
VOL. 40, PLATE 3.
Piy-ftf 40:87-81(193J), hup //psych? emcluh orgW40-Oit7.htint



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PERCY GARDNER BOLSTER
August 20, 1865-May 22, 1932
Percy Gardner Bolster, son of the late Judge S. A. Bolster and Sarah Gardner Bolster, died in Boston, May 22, 1932, at 66 years of age. He was educated at the Roxbury Latin School and Harvard College, where he received the degree of A. B., summa cum Zaude, in 1886. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Following the wishes of his father, he entered the Harvard Medical School, and while there he received the degree of A. M. Following his in- clination for law he later left the Medical School and en- tered the Harvard Law School. He passed the Bar exam- inations at the end of his second year, and started prac- ticing immediately.
He was a member of numerous clubs, including the Cam- bridge Entomological Club, to which he was elected (from the Harris Club) in 1903, and of which he was a member until his death. He was president for 1909 and 1913, and on the executive committee six times. As retiring presi- dent, in January 1910, he read a paper on the history of the Club. The manuscript of the paper, which contains much valuable information, has been presented to the club. As an entomologist Mr. Bolster was first interested in Lepidoptera, later in Hymenoptera, and finally and most deeply in Coleoptera. He collected extensively, especially in New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. His manu- script list of the beetles he had collected in Newfoundland was used by Sherman in compiling a list of Labrador Cole- optera in 1910. Two insects collected by Mr. Bolster bear his name: Bombus bolsteri Franklin and Dolichopm bol- steri Van Duzee, Cole & Aldrich. In 1917, after fire had



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destroyed the Wellesley College insect collection, he pre- sented a series of Coleoptera to help replace it. His col- lection at the time of his death contained about 60,000 specimens of Hymenoptera and beetles, in excellent condi- tion and labeled not only with collecting data but with authoritative identifications and the sources from which they had been received. The collection might serve as a model for orderliness and for care and accuracy of annota- tion. Together with part of Mr. Bolster's entomological library it has been presented to the Museum of Compara- tive Zoology, at Harvard College, by his widow and son, Charles S. Bolster, Harvard '15. It adds materially to the museum collection, and the specimens, which have been individually labeled "Percy Gardner Bolster Coll'n," will remain as a monument to Mr. Bolster's skill and patience as an entomologist.
It is with the deepest sorrow that the Cambridge Ento- mological Club records the loss of Mr. Bolster, one of its least assuming but most helpful members.



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