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Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars
Raymond Lee Ditmars (June 22, 1876 - May 12, 1942) was an American herpetologist, writer, public speaker and pioneering natural history filmmaker.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, he was fascinated by ...view moreRaymond Lee Ditmars (June 22, 1876 - May 12, 1942) was an American herpetologist, writer, public speaker and pioneering natural history filmmaker.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, he was fascinated by all animals, but primarily reptiles, obtaining his first snakes at age twelve. He left school at 16 with no formal qualifications but gained a deep understanding of zoology through his own personal study of snakes and other animals in the wild and captivity. Vacations were spent searching for new specimens, and he would eventually be regarded as the country’s foremost herpetologist.
In 1893 he was hired as an assistant in the Department of Entomology at the American Museum of Natural History. In 1898 he began a short stint as a court reporter for the New York Times, leading him to discover the newly created New York Zoological Society (now the Wildlife Conservation Society) at what would become the Bronx Zoo. In July 1899, four months before the zoo’s grand opening, he was employed as an assistant curator in charge of reptiles and would spend the rest of his career with the zoo. His own collection of 45 reptiles, representing 15 species, formed the nucleus of the reptile house, which proved an immediate success with visitors.
He wrote his first major publication, The Reptile Book (1907), while teaching himself still and motion photography. In 1914 he produced and released The Living Book of Nature, his first motion picture, to wide acclaim. Many other films followed, pioneering the latest available techniques including stop-motion animation, time-lapse, macro photography and, by the mid-1920s, sound film.
In the late 1920s he helped bring about antivenom centers in the United States and Honduras, and soon after launched a series of expeditions to Central and South America in search of tropical specimens for the zoo. He was formally granted the title of Curator of Mammals in 1926.
Ditmars died in in New York City in 1942 aged 65.view less