John Henry Comstock

Comstock was born on February 24, 1849, in Janesville, Wisconsin. He entered Cornell University as a student in 1869, a year after the school was founded. He also took classes at Harvard University in the summer of 1872 and at Yale University in 1875.

In 1871, while still a student, Comstock became an assistant to professor Burton Green Wilder. In 1872, in the absence of a professor in entomology, students submitted a petition requesting that Comstock be given permission to deliver a course of lectures upon "Insects Injurious to Vegetation". The lectures were successful, and Comstock was appointed instructor

of entomology in 1873. He received his Bachelor of Science in June 1874, and was made an assistant professor in 1876.

Image:Anna-Botsford-Comstock-1854-1930.jpg

In 1878 Comstock married Anna Botsford. Anna also studied entomology: she earned a degree and worked with her husband to write and illustrate books and articles on the subject. Her beautiful wood engravings illustrate their work. Both became professors of Nature Studies at Cornell. Anna Botsford Comstock was the first female professor at Cornell.{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=E H |title=The Comstocks and Cornell: In the People's Service |journal=Annual Review of Entomology |date=January 1976 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1146/annurev.en.21.010176.000245 |url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.en.21.010176.000245 |access-date=21 February 2023 |language=en |issn=0066-4170|url-access=subscription }}{{cite news |last1=Roberts |first1=Jennifer A. |title=U- Universities hiring more married profs WIRE.com/Universities hiring more married profs |url=http://www.uwire.com/content/topnews103101001.html |access-date=21 February 2023 |work=Cornell Daily Sun |date=October 31, 2001 |archive-date=20 April 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050420204722/http://www.uwire.com/content/topnews103101001.html |url-status=dead }} Anna wrote an autobiography of the couple, first published in 1953 and edited by Glenn Herrick and Ruby G. Smith, titled The Comstocks of Cornell: John Henry Comstock and Anna Botsford Comstock.{{cite journal |last1=Saulnier |first1=Beth |title=Her Own Words |journal=Cornell Alumni Magazine |date=March 2020 |pages=56–63 |url=http://cornellalumnimagazine.com/her-own-words/ |access-date=4 March 2020}}{{cite web |last1=Comstock |first1=Anna Botsford |title=The Comstocks of Cornell John Henry Comstock and Anna Botsford Comstock; An autobiography by Anna Botsford Comstock. |editor-first1=Glenn W. |editor-last1=Herrick |editor-first2=Ruby Green |editor-last2=Smith |editor-link2=Ruby Green Smith |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501740558/the-comstocks-of-cornell/ |publisher=Cornell University Press |access-date=August 29, 2019}}{{cite web |title=The Comstocks of Cornell—The Definitive Autobiography by Anna Botsford Comstock |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501716270/the-comstocks-of-cornellthe-definitive-autobiography/ |publisher=Cornell University Press}} A 2020 edition, edited by Karen Penders St. Clair, and titled The Comstocks of Cornell—The Definitive Autobiography, restored much material from Anna's original manuscript.

Comstock worked at Vassar College from 1877 to 1879. Between 1879 and 1881 he became the chief Entomologist of the USDA in Washington, D.C.

In 1882 Comstock returned to Cornell as professor of Entomology and Invertebrate Zoology.{{cite book |title=The ten-year book of Cornell University : II. 1868-1888 |date=1888 |publisher=Andrus & Church |location=Ithaca, N. Y. |page=78 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924005731488/page/n83/mode/1up?q=Comstock&PA=76}} He also did work in insect morphology{{cite journal |last1=Metcalf |first1=Z. P. |title=The Wings of Insects . By J. H. Comstock. Ithaca, N. Y., The Comstock Publication Company. Pp. xviii +423, 9 plates and 427 figs. |journal=Science |date=27 September 1918 |volume=48 |issue=1239 |pages=322–322 |doi=10.1126/science.48.1239.322.a |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.48.1239.322.a |language=en |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }} and is best known as the co-proposer of the Comstock-Needham system with James George Needham.{{cite book |editor-last1=Pimentel |editor-first1=David |last=Evans |first=Howard E. |chapter=The Comstock Heritage |title=Insects, Science & Society |date=2 December 2012 |publisher=Elsevier |isbn=978-0-323-15648-6 |pages=xvii-xxv |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IzKys4JKYmwC&pg=PR21 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Duncan |first1=Carl Dudley |title=A Contribution to the Biology of North American Vespine Wasps |date=1969 |publisher=Stanford University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ei-iAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA67 |language=en}}

In 1898-1899, Comstock studied at the University of Leipzig.

In 1893, John Henry Comstock and Simon Henry Gage founded the Comstock Publishing Company in order to make textbooks on microscopy, histology, and entomology available at a reasonable price to students and to publish the works of Anna Botsford Comstock on nature study.{{cite web |title=Guide to the Cornell University Press and Comstock Publishing Company records, [ca. 1880-1935] |url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA00257.html |website=Cornell University Library |access-date=21 February 2023}}

Comstock was a member or honorary member or fellow of the Entomological Society of France, the Entomological Society of Belgium, and the Entomological Society of London. He was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=John+H.+Comstock&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-11-15 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}

In 1912 he attended the 250th anniversary of the Royal Society of London as the representative of Cornell University, and represented the Entomological Society of London at the 100th anniversary of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

Comstock retired from teaching and administrative work in 1914 at age 65, but continued to do research and write.{{cite news |last1=Gage |first1=Simon Henry |title=Retirement of Professor John Henry Comstock |date=1914 |work=The Cornell Countryman |location=Ithaca, N.Y. |pages=227-229 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924001562804/page/n4/mode/1up?view=theater}}

Comstock, through his own work and that of his wife and students, had a significant influence in the development of entomology departments throughout the United States.

He suffered a stroke on August 5, 1926, and lived as an invalid until his death on March 20, 1931.

File:Cornell University Library, Ithaca, New York- Comstock Memorial Library, Entomology, bought with the income of a fund given by the students of John Henry Comstock, Professor of Entomology, 1915, book plate, Ex Libris (cropped).jpg in 1915|alt=]]

The Entomological Society of America gives out an award in each of its six branches to the outstanding graduate student of the year. This award is the John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award.{{cite web |title=NCB John Henry Comstock Award |url=https://www.entsoc.org/membership/branches/northcentral/awards/JHComstockAward |website=Entomological Society of America |access-date=21 February 2023 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=John Henry Comstock Graduate Student Award {{as written|Reci|epents [sic]}} |url=https://www.entsoc.org/awards/student/comstock_list |website=Entomological Society of America |access-date=21 February 2023 |language=en}}

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Comstock published many books and articles including:

• [https://archive.org/details/introductiontoen00comsrich Introduction to Entomology] (1908).
• A Manual for the study of insects (1930) jointly credited and illustrated by Anna Botsford Comstock.
• The Spider book: a manual for the study of the spiders and near relatives (1912).
• Notes on Entomology (Ithaca, 1875).
• Annual Reports of Entomologist (Washington, 1879–1881).
• Report on Cotton Insects (1879).
• Second Annual Report of the Department of Entomology of Cornell University, including a monograph on Diaspinae (Ithaca, 1883).
• an article on Hymenoptera in the "Standard Natural History" (Boston, 1884).

• Idiogramma comstockii

{{reflist}}

• {{commons category-inline}}
• {{commons-inline|Category:A manual for the study of insects|A manual for the study of insects}}
• [http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA00025.html John Henry and Anna Botsford Comstock papers, 1833-1955,-1874-1931], Cornell Library
• {{cite web |title=Guide to the Cornell University Press and Comstock Publishing Company records, [ca. 1880-1935] |url=https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMA00257.html |website=Cornell University Library }}
• [https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/search?keyword=Comstock&tab= Comstock at the Darwin Correspondence Project]
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=John Henry Comstock |sopt=t}}

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Category:1849 births

Category:1931 deaths

Category:American entomologists

Category:American arachnologists

Category:Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni

Category:Cornell University faculty

Category:People from Janesville, Wisconsin

Category:Yale University alumni

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society