Tryon Reakirt

Who is Tryon Reakirt?

Tryon Reakirt was an American entomologist.

Reakirt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was interested in the Lepidoptera of the Americas and the Philippines and published nine articles in the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia and a tenth in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the last appearing in 1868. William Henry Edwards regarded him as one of the best North-American specialists in the Rhopalocera.

Some details of his life are known from a correspondence which he exchanged with Ferdinand Heinrich Hermann Strecker, as well as letters written by his father, John Reakirt. In August 1868, he tried to sell his collection via Strecker to the New York Lyceum for $1800, but he learned more than one year later that this sum was not to be had. He then tried to sell it to Reading Natural History Society for $1400. But there too, the discussions failed.

F.H.H. Strecker then purchased the collection, and an agreement of payment was then established. But F.H.H. Strecker did not honour any of the payments envisaged, plunging Reakirt into great financial distress. The correspondence between the two men ceased after a last letter dated August 18, 1870. At the beginning of 1871, Reakirt left the United States of America for Lima in Peru. A little time after, the two companies which he had founded filed for bankruptcy and an investigation was opened against Reakirt.