Miriam Rothschild 1908–2005

Miriam Rothschild, who died January 20, 2005 at 96, was an honorary member of the American Society of Parasitologists. Born into the English branch of the famous banking family on 5 August 1908, Rothschild might have spent her life in leisure. Rather, she chose to follow the lead of her father, Charles, and his older brother, Walter, who both were naturalists, as well as financiers. Before his untimely death in 1923 when Miriam was still a teenager, Charles Rothschild had assembled the world's best collection of fleas, and he and the famous entomologist, Karl Jordan, had published important papers regarding these insects, including Xenopsylla cheopis, with reference to its role as a vector of bubonic plague. Miriam Rothschild spent many years, in concert with G. H. E. Hopkins, preparing an illustrated catalogue of the Rothschild Collection of Fleas housed in the British Museum, a fact that led many to...