This finding aid was digitized with funds generously provided by the Smithsonian Institution Women's Committee.
Descriptive Entry:
These papers consist of incoming and outgoing professional correspondence mostly concerned with the identification of entomological specimens. Also included is correspondence
relating to Burks' term as Associate Editor for American Midland Naturalist.
Historical Note:
Barnard D. Burks (1909-1990) studied at the University of Illinois and received his B.A. in 1933, M.A. in 1934, and Ph.D in entomology in 1937. From 1935 until 1942,
he worked for the State Natural History Survey in Urbana, Illinois, as Assistant Entomologist. During World War II, he worked for the United States Army Sanitary Corps from
1942 to 1946. He then returned to the State Natural History Survey in 1946 as Associate Taxonomist, but resigned three years later to accept a position as Entomologist at
the Division of Insect Identification, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), located in the Natural History Building in Washington, D.C. After 1972, the Division
became the Systematic Entomology Laboratory. In 1964, his title was changed to Collaborative Scientist, and he continued the study of parasitic Hymenoptera until his retirement
from the USDA in 1974. Burks also served as Associate Editor of American Midland Naturalist from 1954 to 1967, reviewing entomology papers for the journal.
These papers consist of notes and collection information gathered about mosquitoes from all over the world, as well as field notebooks and data used for The Mosquitoes
of the South Pacific. Also included is the typed manuscript, illustrations, and galley proofs of The Mosquitoes of the South Pacific, Belkin's professional correspondence
documenting his career at UCLA, and photographs and slides taken at many different field locations.
Historical Note:
John N. Belkin (1913-1980) was born in Petrograd, Russia, and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1938. That same year, he received his B.S. at Cornell University.
He continued at Cornell, first as Assistant Entomologist for two years and then as Entomology Instructor until 1942. Belkin accepted a position as Junior Entomologist for
the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1942, but soon afterward was commissioned in the United States Army Sanitary Corps.
Belkin was the Commanding Officer of the 420th Malaria Survey Detachment in the Solomon Islands from 1943 to 1945, where he conducted his extensive surveys and collecting
of specimens that would later serve as the basis of his two-volume The Mosquitoes of the South Pacific. Belkin returned to Cornell in 1946 and received a Ph.D. in medical
entomology. He then worked briefly at Rutgers University as an Assistant Specialist in Entomology, and from 1946 until 1949 was Associate Professor of Biology for the Associated
Colleges of Upper New York.
Belkin moved to California in 1949 to take a position as Assistant Professor of Entomology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He became an Associate Professor
in 1952 and a full Professor of Entomology in 1958. In 1962, Belkin became Professor of Zoology at UCLA, a position he held until his death in 1980.
