Charles H. Martin was a faculty member in the Oregon State University Department of Entomology from 1946 until his retirement in 1968. Martin earned B.A. and M.A. (1927) degrees from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. (1939) from Cornell University. He was a researcher at the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station in Cincinnati after completing his doctoral degree and before joining the faculty at Oregon State College. Charles Herbert Martin was born in Aline, Oklahoma on March 23, 1901 and died in Tucson, Arizona on October 21, 1975.
These materials were transferred to the former University Archives by the Oregon State University Entomology Department in 2002.
This finding aid was prepared under remote working conditions in 2020 without access to the original collection; consequently, the number of original photographic prints in the reports could not be determined by the finding aid author and is not included in this finding aid.
Collection is open for research.
Charles H. Martin Papers (MSS MartinC), Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Corvallis, Oregon.
The Special Collections and Archives Research Center's holdings include additional materials pertaining to symphylid research in the
The Charles H. Martin Papers consist of three narrative research reports on garden symphylids compiled by Martin while he was a researcher at the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. In addition to narrative text, the reports include tables and charts of experimental results as well as photographs of experimental methods and processes.
Garden symphylids, also known as garden centipedes, are soil-dwelling arthropods. They consume decaying vegetation and can do considerable harm to agricultural crops by consuming seeds, roots, and root hairs in cultivated soil. Symphylids are described as a "serious agricultural pest" in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, and cause extensive damage in home gardens, nurseries, and greenhouses. Consequently, there have been active research and extension programs at Oregon State University pertaining to garden symphylids since the 1930s.