Allen S. Williams, pictured in 1883. Ninety three years ago today, one of Raymond Ditmars's fellow snake lovers died aged 64.
Allen Samuel Williams, author, journalist, naturalist and director of the Reptile Study Society of America, was born in Ohio. As a young man he reported for the New York Times alongside a young Raymond Ditmars and later became an associate editor of the Truth and of the St. Louis Chronicle.
A famous teetotaller, Williams made a special study of opium and hashish habits, and in 1883 he self-published The Demon of the Orient, a book influencing anti-opium legislation in New York state and beyond.
Reptiles were another source of fascination for Williams who accompanied Ditmars on many snake-hunting expeditions close to New York City.
Williams was a fervent supporter of the Bronx Zoo. In 1906, he wrote: ‘To-day all in or near New York can learn to identify snakes because they can see them alive in the Reptile House of the beautiful park in the Bronx of the New York Zoological Society, which is the greatest educator in Nature Study that our country has had or probably can ever have.’
In March 1913, Williams prefigured Ditmars's own expeditions in the 1930s by sailing for Trinidad, Tobago and Venezuela to collect reptile exhibits. By then, Williams was managing the Sportsmen’s Show held annually at Madison Square Garden, NYC, and a bushmaster was said to be on his wishlist. It is not clear whether he successfully caught a specimen of the world's largest viper.
Williams died on 5 Feb 1922 in Fordham Hospital, Bronx, NY.
Allen Samuel Williams, author, journalist, naturalist and director of the Reptile Study Society of America, was born in Ohio. As a young man he reported for the New York Times alongside a young Raymond Ditmars and later became an associate editor of the Truth and of the St. Louis Chronicle.
A famous teetotaller, Williams made a special study of opium and hashish habits, and in 1883 he self-published The Demon of the Orient, a book influencing anti-opium legislation in New York state and beyond.
Reptiles were another source of fascination for Williams who accompanied Ditmars on many snake-hunting expeditions close to New York City.
Williams was a fervent supporter of the Bronx Zoo. In 1906, he wrote: ‘To-day all in or near New York can learn to identify snakes because they can see them alive in the Reptile House of the beautiful park in the Bronx of the New York Zoological Society, which is the greatest educator in Nature Study that our country has had or probably can ever have.’
In March 1913, Williams prefigured Ditmars's own expeditions in the 1930s by sailing for Trinidad, Tobago and Venezuela to collect reptile exhibits. By then, Williams was managing the Sportsmen’s Show held annually at Madison Square Garden, NYC, and a bushmaster was said to be on his wishlist. It is not clear whether he successfully caught a specimen of the world's largest viper.
Williams died on 5 Feb 1922 in Fordham Hospital, Bronx, NY.
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