Frederick Starr was born on September 2, 1858, in Auburn, Cayuga, New York.

He was an anthropologist, educator, author, and editor. He was educated at the University of Rochester and Lafayette College (1882), where he received his Ph.D. in geology in 1885. While working as a curator of geology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, he became interested in anthropology and ethnology. He also served as curator of its ethnological collection (1889-1891). In 1891, he was appointed an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago (1892-1895). In 1896, he gained tenure and remained in the position until his retirement in 1923. He also served as curator of the Walker Museum (1895-1823). In 1905-1906, Starr studied the pygmy races of Central Africa. In 1908, he did fieldwork in the Philippine Islands, followed by Japan in 1909-1910 and Korea in 1911. Starr wrote extensively about his travels and research, e.g., Some Steps in Human Process (1895), American Indians (1895), Indians of Southern Mexico (1898), Philippine Studies (1909), Korean Buddhism (1918), Fujiyama, the Sacred Mountain of Japan (1924), The Truth About the Conao (1907), Congo Natives (1912), and Liberia (1913).

He died of bronchial pneumonia on August 14, 1933, in Tokyo, Japan.