Background
Aldrich, John Merton was born on January 28, 1866 in Olmsted Company, Minnesota, United States. Son of Levi O. and Mary M. (Moore) Aldrich.
Aldrich, John Merton was born on January 28, 1866 in Olmsted Company, Minnesota, United States. Son of Levi O. and Mary M. (Moore) Aldrich.
In 1888, he graduated from South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota., after which he briefly worked at the South Dakota State Agricultural Experiment Station. From 1888 until 1890 he attended Michigan State College, before getting his Master of Surgery from South Dakota State University. In 1892 he entered the University of Kansas where he obtained a second Master of Surgery in 1893.
Aldrich was the Associate Curator of Insects at the United States National Museum. He is considered one of the most prolific entomologists in the study of flies. He went to school in Rochester in that state.
In 1891 he became the first zoology professor at the University of Idaho.
In 1905 he remarried, to Della Smith in Moscow. Aldrich stored his collection and library at his father"s house in Moscow.
He moved to California to attend Stanford University. The following year he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy and returned to Idaho.
After almost twenty years as professor at the University of Idaho, he lost his job.
In 1913, he became Entomological Assistant at the Bureau of Entomology. As Assistant, he worked in the Cereal and Forage Crop Insects Section, based in Lafayette, Indiana. He donated his personal collection of diptera to the museum in 1928.
In total, he donated 45,000 specimens and 4,000 named species, along with the documenting card catalog, which, as of 1934, was the only documentation related to American flies in the world.
Aldrich"s early research work involved the study of economic entomology and its different phases. While teaching at the University of Idaho, he started working on his book about American flies.
While in Indiana, he studied the lives of grass flies, and other flies, that were involved in cereal crop destruction. In his research, he traveled to Utah, California, Alaska, Guatemala, and Sweden.
Aldrich was active in the All Souls Unitarian-Universalist Church in Washington, District of Columbia, where he taught religion classes.
He co-founded the Thomas Say Foundation. He served as curator and custodian at the United States National Museum until his death in 1930. His archival collections are held in the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
He died suddenly on May 27, 1934.
Just before his death, he had plans for his bi-annual Pacific Coast collecting trip. He was buried in Moscow, Idaho.
He was an active member of the Entomological Society of America, serving as president and secretary-treasurer, and also served as president of the Washington Entomological Society.
Married Ellen J. Roe, January 3, 1893 (died 1897). Married second, Della Smith, June 28, 1905.