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PC 77
A. Leonard Melander
Photographs, ca. 1904-1926

This collection of Axel Leonard Melander's photographs was donated to the WSU Libraries' archives in 1964 by Melander's wife.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Chicago in 1878, A. Leonard Melander received his B.S. and M.S degrees from the University of Texas in 1901 and 1902, and after a short stint at the University of Chicago, came to Washington State College on Feb. 1, 1904, where he would serve as Professor of Entomology, Entomologist at the Experiment Station, and Head of the Department of Zoology. He left WSU exactly 22 years after he came, leaving on Feb. 1, 1926 to move to the College of the City of New York. Melander is held to be the first to prove that insects can develop resistance to insecticides, in a case involving the San Jose scale and lime-sulfur. Melander died on August 14th, 1962, in Riverside, California.

ARRANGEMENT AND DESCRIPTION

The collection consists of black and white photographs of orchards, insects, spraying, experiment station research plots, WSC demonstration train, and WSC class pictures. Virtually every picture is both undated and unlabeled.

RELATED MATERIALS

Here at MASC, Cage 3055 consists of approximately 75 clippings, notes, and manuscripts from A.L. Melander regarding insects and diseases, such as typhoid. A few additional materials may be found in other collections by searching MASC's site for Melander.
A small unprocessed collection of Melander's correspondence and photographs can be found at the California Academy of Sciences Archives.
Melander's collection of nearly a quarter million Diptera samples and his personal library were acquired by the Smithsonian, and became part of the U.S. National Entomological Collection.