Raymond L. Ditmars

American naturalist Raymond Lee Ditmars was born in Newark, NJ, in 1876 (his father, a Confederate veteran, gave him the middle name of "Lee" in honor of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee). He graduated from the Barnard Military School in 1891. Soon after graduation he secured a job with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, mounting and labeling insect specimens. He stayed there five years before accepting a job as a reporter for the "New York Times". As he was interviewing the director of the newly established New York Zoological Park, the director noted Ditmars' intense interest in animals and suggested that he would be much happier working at the Zoological Park than as a "Times" reporter, a suggestion that Ditmars accepted. He was initially appointed curator of reptiles, then promoted to director of the department of mammals. When the park's director passed away, Ditmars was given that job. He traveled to all parts of the world, writing books on and making movies of various animals in their native habitats. He served in the Zoological Park until his death in 1942.