the late Dr. frank talaska
made a huge (approx. 3' x 3') display for some of the flies and gifted it back to her father, Leo who gifted it to his son Eric in 2004, who gifted it back to Rickie in 2008. Eric was gifted a separate fly collection of which he picked the very best ones to keep as shown above. Now Eric wishes to donate the 15 flies above to a museum that is interested and recommends ELM to do the same with the huge display.
This is an earliest example of how Dr. Talaska started an extreme obsession with collecting and/or making things. For example, Dr. Talaska's son Leo was extreme with buying, making and selling lures. Eric was in the collector's trap for a while, but totally broke away from it all in 2015 when he sold and donated almost everything. Eric considered such acts a waste of time and a burden overall.