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. The number of species in the Tenebrionidae is estimated at more than 20,000 and the family is cosmopolitan in distribution. Taxonomy ''Tenebrio'' is the Latin g ...

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 (C ...

, but his family moved to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, after the death of his brothers from scarlet fever, when he was eight, and to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

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 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 a hobbyist's hives ...

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

, 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 discipline that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide their treatment, within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiat ...

. On a holiday he collected beetles and plants in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

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 Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

in Baltimore. In 1910, Cooper College became affiliated to Stanford University 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 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, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 1853 ...

. '' 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 scienti ...

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