Charles Frederick Millspaugh

Charles Frederick Millspaugh (June 20, 1854 – September 15, 1923) was an American botanist, botanical illustrator, and physician. He was the founding curator of botany at the Field Museum of Natural History from 1897 until his death, where he was instrumental in collecting and organizing the museum's vast botanical collections.

Life and career Millspaugh was born in Ithaca, New York, on June 20, 1854. He was a nephew of Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University. Millspaugh attended Cornell from 1872 to 1875 and then New York Homeopathic Medical College, earning his medical degree in 1881. He practiced medicine in Binghamton, New York, until 1890. Drawn to botany since a chance meeting in his youth with Louis Agassiz, he decided to change careers.

From 1891 to 1892, Millspaugh taught botany at West Virginia University. In 1894 he was appointed as the newly established Field Museum of Natural History's first Curator of Botany, a position he held until his death. He collected and indexed the museum's vast botanical collections. From 1897 to 1923 he served as professor of medical botany at the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. He also taught botany at the University of Chicago, first as a lecturer in 1895 and later as associate professor of economic botany. He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the Torrey Botanical Society and the Explorers Club.