Willis J. Gertsch

Who was Willis J. Gertsch?

Willis John Gertsch was an American arachnologist. He classified a number of species, including the Brown recluse spider and the Tooth cave spider.

Gertsch was the premier American arachnologist for half of the 20th century. He was Curator of Arachnids at the American Museum of Natural History, and later retired to Portal, Arizona in the Chiricahua Mountains. He was the author of hundreds of generic and specific names in a multitude of families and also the author of American Spiders, as well as editor of a later revised printing of John Henry Comstock's Spider Book. During his tenure as Curator of Arachnids at the American Museum of Natural History he was the usual authority quoted when any question on spiders arose.

E. B. White consulted Gertsch before Charlotte's Web was published to inquire about a spider he observed. Gertsch was the one who informed White that the spider was a barn spider. The character Charlotte's full name in the book is "Charlotte A. Cavatica."