A long-term teacher and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, he was President of the American Entomological Society 1900-15. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1918.[2] His 1893 publication Catalogue of the Odonata (dragonflies) of the Vicinity of Philadelphia, with an Introduction to the Study of this Group served as a model for regional insect study and was the first major attempt at a guide to the order. Calvert went on to publish over 300 notes and articles on the Odonata. He was married to botanistAmelia Smith Calvert.