text: 1897 | Malacohistory
  Linter, an English lady-conchologist
  Miss Jane (full names: Juliana Emma) Linter was born in Teighmouth, Devonshire, on 19 July 1844 as the fourth child of William Brine Linter and Caroline Mary Nicholls. Both her father and grandfather were musicians. At an early age she went to London for study and was a regular reader at the British Museum. She lived for many years in Twickenham near London, and remained unmarried. She began her collection of shells around 1880 and according to Tomlin (1949) the basis was formed by parts of the collection of William Theobald (1829-1908), and the collection of Colonel Skinner. Her favourite group was the Helicoidea of which she had many unique specimens in her collection, among which material collected by Wollaston on the Madeira group. According to Tomlin (1949) she "was to all intents and purposes a dealer (…) and exchanged largely". However, it is unclear on what evidence Tomlin based his qualification as a dealer as this would imply the distribution of stock lists. To the contrary, we found only evidence that she exchanged shells (see below). She died on 30 August 1909 in her home in Twickenham (Smith, 1910). Her collection was bequeathed to the RAMM in Exeter, U.K.
  The following eponyms have been described: Achatina linterae Sowerby III, 1890 and Bulimus fulminans var. linterae Sowerby III, 1890; Ophistoma linterae Sowerby III, 1896. Further: Plectopylis linterae Möllendorff, 1897 and Papuina linterae Möllendorff, 1897; Buliminus (Napaeus) linterae Kobelt, 1899, and finally, Chloritis linterae Gude, 1905.
  We already came across this lady-conchologist when studying the Dautzenberg archive (Breure, 2015), with whom she exchanged shells. But in the Crosse archive I also found evidence that Miss Linter was willing to exchange shells, in this case not for other shells but as a payment in natura for the Journal de Conchyliologie, as this postcard from 10 November 1897 shows.
  Breure ASH. 2015. The malacological handwritings in the autograph collection of the Ph. Dautzenberg archives, Brussels. Folia Conchyliologica 33: 1–111.
  Smith EA. 1910. Obituary notice. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 9: 89.
  Tomlin JR le B. 1949. Shell sales, VI. Proceedings of the Malacological Society of London 27: 254–256.
  [1] Crosse archive, with thanks to W. Backhuys.
  This entry was posted in Biographical data, Collections, Correspondence and tagged 1897, England, eponym, handwriting, postcard, RAMM, signature on August 1, 2016 by bramb.