Frank W. Blackmar

Frank Wilson Blackmar ( born November 3, 1854 in Springfield, Erie County, Pennsylvania, † March 30, 1931 in Lawrence, Kansas) was an American historian and sociologist as well as the ninth president of the American Sociological Association.

Blackmar began his academic career as a mathematics lecturer at the University of the Pacific in San Jose, where he had also studied. In 1886, he joined as a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins University where he studied history and the Ph.D. received his doctorate. In 1896 he became a professor at the University of Kansas, only for history and sociology, and later of sociology and economics. From 1912 to 1929 he taught up there exclusively sociology.

In addition to his pioneering work for the field of sociology in Kansas he was committed to promoting the welfare and animal welfare.

Writings (selection )

• Spanish Colonization of the South West, 1890
• The Story of Human Progress, 1896
• Elements of Sociology, in 1907.