Clara Southmayd Ludlow

Clara Southmayd Ludlow was born on December 26, 1852, in Easton, Pennsylvania, the eldest child of Jacob Rapalje and Anna Mary (Hunt) Ludlow. During the American Civil War, her father served as Surgeon of the 1st Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, United States Army, and the family briefly lived in Knoxville, Tennessee after the war. near Alton, Illinois, her occupation listed as "Music [Teacher]." According to the 1924 Biographical Cyclopedia of American Women, "for many years she made music her profession, teaching and doing a certain amount of concert work." However, she reported experiencing familial strain and depression during that period that contributed to her change in profession. ==Education and career as a scientist==

By 1897, she was a student at Mississippi Agricultural & Mechanical College (now Mississippi State University) in Starkville, Mississippi, which was otherwise an all-male institution. In 1898, she had her first formal exposure to entomology as a student working in the mosquito laboratory of Professor George W. Herrick during an epidemic of yellow fever. During 1920, she became the museum's Chief Entomologist, a position she held until her death. ==Death and interment==

Ludlow died on September 28, 1924, from cancer in Washington, D.C. She was eulogized by Major General James F. Coupal. She is interred in Arlington National Cemetery, in Section 2, Grave No. 3843, beside her father. Her grave marker simply indicates her name and date of death, and that she was "daughter of Jacob". ==Commemoration==

She was commemorated by contemporary entomologists in the specific epithets of the mosquitoes Uranotaenia clara Dyar & Shannon, 1925 and Uranotaenia ludlowae Dyar & Shannon, 1925, having formally described many more species herself during her life (72 species plus six genera). ==References==