Franklin J. W. Schmidt

Who is Franklin J. W. Schmidt?

Franklin James White Schmidt was an American naturalist, noted as one of the first practitioners of the field of "wildlife management". Hired by Wisconsin, Schmidt's main work was on the prairie grouse, and its habits in the central marshes of Wisconsin. He published one paper on feeding habits of the grouse. At the time of his death, he planned to start a consulting service to assist other Midwestern states in managing the prairie grouse, which would have also allowed him to continue to collect even more information on the species. Seven other papers in preparation on the prairie grouse were consumed by the fire that killed Schmidt and also his mother. Also consumed by the flames were many other field samples.

Regarding rodents and reptiles, Schmidt published five papers. In the 1920s, Schmidt worked for Chicago's Field Museum, and he participated in their expeditions to South America and Guatemala. His painted turtle paper with Bishop established the modern view of that genus as a single species with multiple subspecies. Schmidt's brother, Karl Patterson Schmidt, who lived thirty years longer, was a noted herpetologist, who died by snakebite.