American school master and mycologist in Ohio and North Carolina. Henry Beardslee was born in Painesville, Ohio and on graduating from Painesville High School (1883) he entered Oberlin College where he remained for one year. Moving to Adelbert College of Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio he received his BA and MA (1892) from this institution. After a year spent teaching at the Academy in Green Springs Beardslee married Anna A. Ford and settled at the University School of Cleveland where he taught science for 11 years.

In 1901 Beardslee established the Asheville School for Boys with two associates and served as its senior master until his retirement. Interested in plants and fungi from childhood (perhaps because his father had been a physician and botanist) Beardslee began to collect and study fungi in the Asheville region of North Carolina. Particularly interested in the genus Russula Pers. he became an expert in their identification and his 1918 publication "The Russulas of North Carolina" contained four new species of his description. Following his retirement in 1919 Beardslee spent the winter months collecting fungi in Florida and spent the summers adding to his flowering plant herbarium. His collection was donated to Oberlin College at the time of his death.

Sources:
G.S. Burlingham, 1948, "Henry Curtis Beardslee", Mycologia, 15(5): 505-506.