James Chamberlain Crawford (1880–1950) was an American entomologist.James Chamberlain Crawford
at the SIA archives.

Biography

Life

Crawford was born August 24, 1880, in West Point, Nebraska, to Judge James Chamberlain Crawford and Catherine Moore. He attended the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

and graduated in 1904. He headed the biology department while there. He died on December 20, 1950, the same year that he retired.

Career

In 1904, Crawford joined the Bureau of Entomology as a research specialists, in the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

. He worked there from 1904 to 1919, after which he worked in a private business for four years, then joined the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. He left the North Carolina Department in 1930, and returned to the Bureau of Entomology and stayed there until his retirement. In 1907, Crawford became an Assistant Curator in the Division of Insects, in the

United States National Museum The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

, and became an Associate Curator in 1911. He continued in this position until 1917, and specialized in the

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is a large order (biology), order of insects, comprising the sawfly, sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are Par ...

. From 1921 until 1930, he studied the Mexican bean beetle, in Black Mountain, North Carolina. He then returned to the Bureau of Entomology until his retirement.

References

1880 births 1950 deaths American entomologists Hymenopterists University of Nebraska alumni United States Department of Agriculture people 20th-century American zoologists {{US-entomologist-stub