Frank Ellsworth Blaisdell, Sr. (13 March 1862 – 16 July 1946) was an American professor of surgery who also was a keen naturalist and collector who specialized in beetles, and contributed to the systematics of the

Tenebrionidae Darkling beetle is the common name for members of the beetle family Tenebrionidae, comprising over 20,000 species in a cosmopolitan distribution. Taxonomy ''Tenebrio'' is the Latin generic name that Carl Linnaeus assigned to some flour beetles ...

and the

Melyridae Melyridae (common name: soft-winged flower beetles) are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea. Description Most are elongate-oval, soft-bodied beetles 10 mm long or less. Many are brightly patterned in black and brown, yellow, ...

. Blaisdell was born in

Pittsfield, New Hampshire Pittsfield is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 4,075 at the 2020 census. The main village in town, where 1,570 people resided at the 2020 census, is defined as the Pittsfield census-designated place ...

, but his family moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, after the death of his brothers from

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'', a Group A streptococcus (GAS). It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years of age. The signs and symptoms include a sore ...

, when he was eight, and to

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

three years later. His father, Solon Greenfield, was a saddle and harness maker, and the family managed a ranch in Poway Valley between 1874 and 1886, where young Blaisdell learned to manage an

apiary An apiary (also known as a bee yard) is a location where Beehive (beekeeping), beehives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. Furthermore, an apiary may refer to ...

and began to collect insects. In 1886 he became a county

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

for San Diego but wished to study medicine. He worked as a clerk and studied medicine under P.C. Remondino and C.C. Valle. He joined

Cooper Medical College The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fran ...

in 1887 and graduated in 1889 to begin practice in San Diego. He moved to

Mokelumne Hill Mokelumne Hill (''Mokelumne'', Miwok for "People of the Fish Net") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Calaveras County, California, United States. The population was 646 at the 2010 census, down from 774 at the 2000 census. It is commonly refer ...

, Calaveras County, in 1892 and worked there until 1900. During this period he married Ella Katherine Peek and they had a son, a namesake who went on to study

radiology Radiology ( ) is the medical specialty that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide treatment within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiation), but tod ...

. On a holiday he collected beetles and plants in

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

and upon returning took up a faculty position at the Cooper Medical College, where he worked for ten years including a year of study in 1909 at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

in Baltimore. In 1910, Cooper College became affiliated to

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and Blaisdell was appointed Professor of Surgery. He retired in 1927. Blaisdell made large collections of beetles and plants, and also studied birds. A part of his large collection of beetles, particularly tenebrionids, was destroyed in the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

and fire, but the remainder are now in the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

. '' Lupinus blaisdellii'' was named after him by

Alice Eastwood __NOTOC__ Alice Eastwood (January 19, 1859 – October 30, 1953) was a Canadian American botanist. She is credited with building the botanical collection at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. She published over 310 scient ...

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaisdell, Frank Ellsworth American entomologists Stanford University alumni 1862 births 1946 deaths People from Pittsfield, New Hampshire Coleopterists