John Henry Comstock
John Henry Comstock (born February 24, 1849 in Janesville , † March 20, 1931 in Ithaca ) was an American entomologist and founder of the Department of Entomology at Cornell University .
Career
childhood
Comstock was born in 1849 on their farm in Janesville, the son of Ebenezer Comstock and Susan Allen, a schoolteacher of the independence fighter Ethan Allen . Shortly after John Henry's birth, his father died during the time of the Gold Rush of cholera , without it had managed to escape from poverty. As a result, when the mortgage for the farm could no longer be serviced, Comstock moved with his mother to New York , where she worked as a nurse . After his mother also fell ill there, Comstock grew up with befriended families until he was eleven. Then Captain Lewis Turner offered him to work on his schooner in exchange for board, lodging, clothing and three months of schooling a year. Turner's wife, Rebecca, looked after Comstock like her own son, so Turner's family became de facto Comstock's childhood home for the next five years. Since he was too weak for most of the seaman's duties, he was trained as a cook by Rebecca Turner. In his free time on the ship, he also learned a lot for attending school in winter by reading various books. His fascination for entomology was awakened by the book A Treatise on Some of the Insects Injurious to Vegetation by Thaddeus William Harris (1795-1856). His copy is now in the Comstock Memorial Department of the Library of Cornell University and is dedicated as follows:
“I purchased this book for $ 10.00 in Buffalo, New York, on July 2nd, 1870. I think it was the first entomological book I ever saw. Before seeing it I had never given entomology a thought; from the time that I bought it I felt that I should like to make the study of insects my lifes's work. "
academic career
At the age of 20, he began his studies at Cornell University . Since there was no course in entomology, Comstock turned to the head of the Department of Zoology Burt G. Wilder (1841-1925), who tried his best to make further books and information available to him. Eventually he hired him as his assistant. A year later, 13 fellow students asked the university to allow Comstock to give an entomology class for them. After Wilder's place, the university also agreed. The title of the lecture in the spring semester of 1872 was Lectures and Field Work in Entomology . The visits by Louis Agassiz and Charles Valentine Riley as visiting professors at Cornell University made a lasting impression . When Hermann August Hagen took over the management of the insect collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge , Comstock also moved there to learn from Hagen. His next teacher was Asa Fitch (1809–1879). Now he received his first official teaching position at Cornell University and when he was called to a lecture at Browdoin College in his second semester as Senior Wilder , Comstock replaced him.
After graduating in June 1874, Riley asked him in his role as entomologist for the US Department of Agriculture to research pests in the southern United States, for which Comstock went to Selma, Alabama . Comstock made his next trip to Florida in the winter of 1876, where he again collected insects. From this second collection, new species were described over seventy years later. At the invitation of James Orton (1830–1877) he gave another entomology lecture at Vassar College after his lecture in the spring of 1877 . After a few more trips to Selma, Rileys was deposed in Washington in 1878 and Comstock took over his position at the Ministry of Agriculture for the next two years. There he had to focus his work on pests and had the opportunity to do several research trips within the USA. In 1880 he first described the San José scale insect (Comstockaspis perniciosa) as the most harmful insect known in America. After completing his last government reports, Comstock devoted himself to teaching and writing a textbook on entomology. His next project turned to the spiders . This culminated in his Spider Book in 1912 . At the same time, he used his only research semester to visit entomological collections in Europe and North Africa with his wife . During this trip he also became an honorary member of the Société Entomologie de Belgique . Comstock emeritus in 1914, but remained loyal to the department. Since 1913 he was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society . He died in 1931.
family
His wife, Anna Botsford Comstock, met Comstock as his student. She first took Comstock's course in 1875 only as a change from her majors in history and English . Since she became interested in the field, she took further courses at Comstock and got to know him on excursions. Eventually they married in 1878. The marriage remained childless.
In the summer of 1894, the Königlische Nationalgalerie Berlin showed a special exhibition of American woodcuts , including woodcuts with butterflies by Anna Botsford Comstock.
Works
- Notes on Entomology , Ithaca 1875
- Report on Cotton Insects , United States Department of Agriculture, Washington DC 1879, Biodiversity Library
- with Vernon L. Kellogg: Elements of Insect Anatomy , Ithaca, Comstock Publ. 1902, Biodiversity Library
- with Anna Comstock: Manual for the Study of Insects , 16th edition, Ithaca: The Comstock Publishing Company 1920, (illustrations by Anna Botsford Comstock, who is also named as co-author), Biodiversity Library
- The Spider book: a manual for the study of the spiders and near relatives , New York: Doubleday, 1912, digitized
- The Wings of Insects , Ithaca: The Comstock Publishing Company 1918, Biodiversity Library
- with Anna Comstock: How to know the butterflies; a manual of the butterflies of the eastern United States , New York, Appleton 1904, Biodiversity Library
- An Introduction to Entomology , Ithaca: Comstock, 9th Edition, 1949, Biodiversity Library
supporting documents
- The Scientific Monthly , Vol. 62, No. 2 (Feb. 1946) pp. 140-150
- The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 62, No. 3 (March 1946) pp. 219-229
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Deutscher Reichsanzeiger No. 37 of February 11, 1898
- ^ Member History: John H. Comstock. American Philosophical Society, accessed June 25, 2018 .
- ↑ Deutscher Reichsanzeiger No. 185 of August 8, 1894
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Comstock, John Henry |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American entomologist, founder of the Department of Entomology at Cornell University |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 24, 1849 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Janesville, Wisconsin |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 20, 1931 |
| Place of death | Ithaca |