Joseph Conrad Chamberlin (December 23, 1898 – July 17, 1962) was an American

arachnologist Arachnology is the scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, pseudoscorpions, harvestmen, ticks, and mites. Those who study spiders and other arachnids are arachnologists. More narrowly ...

who studied mainly

pseudoscorpions Pseudoscorpions, also known as false scorpions or book scorpions, are small, scorpion-like arachnids belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones, also known as Pseudoscorpionida or Chelonethida. Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans bec ...

. A native of

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, he studied primarily at

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 ...

while working most of his career in

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

for the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and production ...

. Several species are named in his honor. His zoological author abbreviation is J.C.Chamberlin.

Early life

Chamberlin was born in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

to Ole Chamberlin and Mary Ethel (Conrad) Chamberlin.Judson, Mark & Chamberlin, David C. (1998)
Joseph C. Chamberlin 1898-1962.
''The Journal of Arachnology'' 26(3): 411-418. His parents were descended from early

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

pioneer families, and he was their first child. Joseph's father died in 1911, leaving the remaining five person family near poverty. After one year of high school, he left school in 1914 to work in order to support the family. In October 1918, Joseph was drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

, but fell ill with the

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

pandemic and never served in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. After recovering, Chamberlin began college at the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

when Congress allocated funding for veterans. Originally a one-year program, Congress expanded it to cover four years of school and Chamberlin transferred to

upon the recommendation of his uncle,

Ralph Vary Chamberlin Ralph Vary Chamberlin (January 3, 1879October 31, 1967) was an American biologist, Ethnography, ethnographer, and historian from Salt Lake City, Utah. He was a faculty member of the University of Utah for over 25 years, where he helped establish ...

. He was accepted as a special case, and studied

entomology 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 ...

in the Zoology Department. His tutor at Stanford was Gordon Floyd Ferris, an internationally reputed

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 ...

at the time. Chamberlin graduated in 1923 with a BA degree, and in 1924 with a master's degree.

Career

Chamberlin began teaching after college at

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

before earning a PhD from Stanford in 1929. That year, he began working for the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

. His first assignment with the department was in Idaho, where he worked until transferring to

Modesto, California Modesto ( ; ) is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,069 according to 2022 United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau estimates, it is the List of cities and towns in Ca ...

, in 1935. In 1936, he moved to Oregon, where he worked at a field station in Corvallis. In 1939, Chamberlin transferred to the Forest Grove station where he remained until 1961. He died in

Hillsboro, Oregon Hillsboro ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County, Oregon, Washington County. Situated in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city hosts many High tech, high-te ...

. Two genus-group names and eleven species have been named after him.Harvey, Mark S. & Judson, Mark (1998)
A Tribute to Joseph C. Chamberlin on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth.
Preface. ''The Journal of Arachnology'' 26(3): 409-410. He would describe several species while working with his uncle. Joseph married Clara Hya Gladstone in 1923 and they had 5 children. They divorced and he remarried Charlotte May in 1944, 6 years after his divorce.

Eponymous taxa

Pseudoscorpions

The following pseudoscorpion taxa (species, genera, or subgenera) have been named for Chamberlin. * ''Apocheiridium chamberlini'' Godfrey 1927 * ''Fissilicreagris chamberlini'' (Beier 1931) * ''Afrosternophorus chamberlini'' (Redikorzev 1938) * ''Haploditha chamberlinorum'' Caporiacco 1951* * ''Kleptochthonius (Chamberlinochthonius)'' Vachon 1952 * ''Pararoncus chamberlini'' (Morikawa 1957) * ''Larca chamberlini'' Benedict & Malcolm 1978 * ''Cheiridium chamberlini'' Dumitresco & Orghidan 1981 * ''Chthonius chamberlini'' (Leclerc 1983) * ''Chamberlinarius'' Heurtault 1990 * ''Hya chamberlini'' Harvey 1993 * ''Tyrannochthonius chamberlini'' Muchmore 1996 * ''Anysrius chamberlini'' Harvey 1998 * ''Rhopalochernes chamberlini'' Heurtault 1998 :*Named for J. Chamberlin and R.V. Chamberlin

Other taxa

Besides pseudoscorpions, other taxa named for Chamberlin include: *''Bulimulus chamberlini'' Hanna (

Gastropoda Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

) *''Centrioptera chamberlini'' Blaisdell (

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 ...

) *''Euagrus josephus'' R.V. Chamberlin (Araneae,

Dipluridae The family Dipluridae, known as curtain-web spiders (or confusingly as funnel-web tarantulas, a name shared with other distantly related families) are a group of spiders in the infraorder Mygalomorphae, that have two pairs of booklungs, and chel ...

) *''Euphorbia chamberlini'' I.M.Johnston (''

Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family (biology), family Euphorbiaceae. Euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees, with perhaps the tallest being ''Eu ...

'') *''Ticida chamberlini'' Van Duzee (Hemiptera,

Dictyopharidae Dictyopharidae is a family (biology), family of planthoppers, related to the Fulgoridae. The family comprises nearly 760 species in more than 150 genera which are grouped into two subfamilies, Dictyopharinae and Orgeriinae. Description Like all ...

) *''Triphora chamberlini'' F. Baker, 1926 (

Triphoridae Triphoridae is a family of very small sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the informal group Ptenoglossa, within the clade Hypsogastropoda. Almost all the species in this family are micromollusks and almost all are left-handed in shell-c ...

)

Early life

Career

Eponymous taxa

Pseudoscorpions

Other taxa

See also

References

Further reading