Malacologist and corresponding member of the Academy who accompanied W. Stimpson and Ezekiel Jewett in exploring invertebrate fauna of south-western Florida. Was employed in various federal agencies, as the U.S. Fish Commission, Geological Survey and National Museum. Collected large numbers of specimens for the Smithsonian Institution while on surveys. Eventually his personal molluscan collection was acquired by the National Museum.

The manuscripts consist of eleven letters addressed to Academy officials and one poem: “Ye Forde-Smythe Feud.” The latter is signed R. E. C. S. Mar. 10, 1894 with a typescript attached. An additional copy in another hand and somewhat different in wording follows, signed “John Bull, Chiswick, Engl.” The poems close a thin volume, a collection of the articles written by Edgar A. Smith and John Ford in the Nautilus.