Doris Holmes Blake
{{short description|American entomologist and scientific illustrator (1892-1978)}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Doris Holmes Blake
| image = Doris_Holmes_Blake.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Doris Mildred Holmes
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|01|11}}
| birth_place = Stoughton, Massachusetts
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1978|12|03|1892|01|11}}
| death_place =
| other_names =
| nationality = American
| workplaces = United States Department of Agriculture
United States National Museum
Smithsonian Institution
| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|
}}
| known_for =
| education =
| fields = Entomology
}}
Doris Holmes Blake, née Doris Mildred Holmes{{cite linked authority file |id= n91-24504|text= Full maiden name|accessdate= 2012-03-31}} (January 11, 1892 – December 3, 1978),{{cite journal |last1=Froeschner|first1=R.C.|last2=Froeschner|first2=E.M.L|last3=Cartwright|first3=O.L.|year=1981|title=Doris Holmes Blake, January 11, 1892–December 3, 1978|journal=Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington|volume=83|issue=3|pages=544–564|url=https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16364889}} was an American entomologist and scientific illustrator.
She was an expert on chrysomelidae (leaf beetles).{{cite web |url=http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217467|title=Record Unit 7310, Blake, Doris Holmes, 1892-1978, Doris Holmes Blake Papers|date=1899–1985|website= |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Archives|accessdate=29 March 2012}}
Life
Doris Holmes was raised in a middle-class family in Stoughton, Massachusetts. She earned a B.A. from Boston University in 1913 and an M.A. in Zoology and Psychology from Radcliffe College in 1917. While at Boston University she worked as a clerk at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, and she became a member of Alpha Delta Pi.The Adelphean of Alpha Delta Pi, Vol. 9, p 137. 1916 article about her working on a degree at Radcliffe after graduating from BU. Also Adelphean, Vol. 11, p. 263 has the announcement of her marriage to Sidney Fay Blake, Ph.D. Marrying the botanist and plant taxonomist Sidney Fay Blake in 1918, she worked for the Bureau of Entomology of the United States Department of Agriculture from 1919 to 1928. From 1928 she worked at the Department of Entomology of the United States National Museum. Forced to resign in 1933 by her husband's employment at the Department (the law prohibited more than one member of a family holding a government position), she continued studying beetles as an unpaid Associate of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, D.C. until her death.
Some of Blake's entomological and botanical sketches, as well as her non-academic writing, are also included. The papers also include a number of photographs of Blake and her family and of entomologists, both at the Smithsonian and at USDA. Her papers are held by the Smithsonian Institution.{{cite book|author=Margaret W. Rossiter|title=Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940-1972|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i7xDqk0_HTQC&pg=PA487|accessdate=12 December 2012|date=15 September 1998|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-5711-9|page=487}}
Works
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|lcheading= Blake, Doris Holmes, 1892-1978}}
- [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7609440 A review of the beetles of the genus Disonycha occurring in America north of Mexico], 1934. Smithsonian Institution.
- A study of LeConte's species of the chrysomelid genus Graphops with descriptions of some new species, 1955
- A review of the beetles of the genus Neobrotica and some closely related genera, 1966. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, v. 118, no. 3529.
- A review of the beetles of the genus Metachroma Chevrolat (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), 1970. Smithsonian contributions to zoology, no. 57.
- The costate species of Colaspis in the United States (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), 1974. Smithsonian contributions to zoology, no. 181.
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=jsgHdCdQkmEC&pg=PP1 The brown semicostate and costate species of Colaspis in Mexico and Central America (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)], 1976. Technical bulletin (United States. Dept. of Agriculture), no. 1534.
References
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External links
- [http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_217467 Doris Holmes Blake Papers, 1899-1985] from the Smithsonian Institution Archives
- [https://transcription.si.edu/search?q=%22Doris+Holmes+Blake%22&op=Search Transcriptions of Doris Holmes Blake Papers], 1899-1985, from the [https://transcription.si.edu/ Smithsonian Transcription Center]
- [http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_sic_3508 Doris Blake: The Courtly Coleopterist]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Doris Holmes}}
Category:People from Stoughton, Massachusetts
Category:American women entomologists
Category:Smithsonian Institution people
Category:American scientific illustrators
Category:20th-century American women scientists
Category:Radcliffe College alumni
Category:Boston University alumni