J. B. Smith

John Bernhardt Smith (November 21, 1858 – March 12, 1912) was an American professor of entomology who specialized in systematics and economic entomology while also serving as the State Entomologist of New Jersey. Smith is remembered in insect taxonomy for the conflict that he had with Harrison Dyar. The standard insect specimen box known as the "Schmitt box" is named after his German-born father.

Biography

Smith was born in New York, into a German family of cabinet makers. He was an avid insect collector and his father, Johann Schmitt (Anglicized as John Schmitt) made special cabinet boxes for his son's collections. Smith studied locally, and went on to study law, which he practiced from 1880 to 1884. In 1884, he changed fields to work as a special agent in the Division of Entomology in the US Department of Agriculture under C.V. Riley. In 1886, Smith was hired by the Smithsonian's National Museum in Washington as an assistant curator of insects. Along with C.V. Riley, Smith helped in standardizing the sizes of the insect cabinet boxes with his father, and these boxes continue to be known as "Schmitt boxes." In 1889 he succeeded George D. Hulst and served as professor of entomology at Rutgers College and as an entomologist at the experiment station. Smith took a special interest in the Noctuidae, proposing as many as 995 species. He was appointed State Entomologist of New Jersey in 1894, a position he held until his death. He edited Entomological Americana from 1882 to 1890 and published several books including the Glossary of Entomology, Economic Entomology (1896), Monograph of the Noctuidae of Boreal America, and Our Insect Friends and Enemies (1909). He received an honorary doctor of science degree from Rutgers College in 1891. From 1900 he took a special interest in mosquitoes and their management.