Albert Hazen Wright was born August 15, 1879, in Hilton, NY. His parents were Delos C. Wright and Emily Hazen. He had one younger sister named Mabel. He attended Hilton High School, in Hilton, NY, Brockport Normal School and eventually Cornell University. It was at Cornell where he met Anna Maria Allen whom he married on June 25, 1910. Wright was a Cornell University professor and herpetologist.* He earned his PhD in vertebrate zoology in 1908. He and his wife were interested in the study of amphibians. In 1949, they co-authored the books Handbook of Snakes of the United States and Canada and Handbook of Frogs and Toads of the United States and Canada. The book Life-Histories of the Frogs of Okefinokee Swamp, Georgia: North American Salientia (Anura) No. 2 was written by Albert Hazen Wright and J. Whitfield Gibbons. The Cornell University's herpetology collection is now one of the largest of its kind in the nation. "The major strengths of the collection, amphibians from the southeastern United States and both reptiles and amphibians from the Northeast, reflects the intensive collection by the Wrights. Much of the material collected by the Wrights in New York and Georgia is not duplicated elsewhere."
Between 1921-22, A.H. Wright worked and studied in a part of Georgia
known as the Okefenokee Swamp. He befriended Frances Harper who did extensive
research on the culture and live of people who lived in the Okefenokee Swamp
(See this website
Wright was an honorary member of the International Ornithological Congress. And in 1959, he was elected the 2nd vice president of the Dewitt Historical Society. After years of research and writing, he died in Ithaca, NY in July of 1970, at the age of eighty-one.
Correspondence, field notes, lecture notes, study notes, typescripts of articles, genealogies of the Wright family and of Noah Downs, negatives, slides, photographs, clippings, drawings, census reports, maps, Cornell University and Ithaca, New York publications and printed material, transcripts of oral history interviews with Wright, manuscripts of his scientific books, and other material pertaining to his career as a zoologist, university professor, lecturer, and author. Other subjects include the Cornell University Natural History Society, the Zoology Department, and the Gamma Alpha Scientific Society; also, study and research notes pertaining to the Okefenokee Swap, Sullivan's Expedition in New York State, lizards, snakes, frogs, and other herpetological subjects and issues.
Not all the material in the collection is covered by this guide.
Albert Hazen Wright papers, #14-26-1382. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
See also the Burt Green Wilder papers, #14-26-95,
See also the Department of Zoology Records, #14-26-966,
See the Frances Harper collection at the University of Chapel Hill, #3638 for more information on the Okefenokee Swamp. in this way.
Boxes: 1-5
Boxes 6-8
Boxes 8-14
Boxes: Boxes 14-16, 63-65
Subseries A: Poll Election Lists
Box 16
Boxes: Box 46-52, 57, 58, 61, 62,
64, 64
Boxes: Boxes 17-19, 58-61
Boxes: 20-22, 53-57
Subseries A: General
Boxes: 19, 23-24
Subseries B: New York State History
Boxes: 5 and 24
Subseries C: Irises
Boxes: 19, 20, 23, 65
Subseries D: Field notebooks
Boxes: 24-26
Boxes: 25 and 27-28
Boxes: 21 and 28-30, 56
Subseries A: Correspondence
Box: 30
Boxes: 30, 42, 61, 62
Subseries A: Oral Histories
Boxes: 30-31
Subseries B: Department of Neurology and Vertebrate Zoology
Box:
31
Subseries C: Teaching Material
Boxes: 31-32
Subseries D: Correspondence
Box: 32
Subseries E: Albert Hazen and Anna Allen Wright's School
Days
Boxes: 32-33 and 35
Subseries F: National Research Council
Box: 23
Subseries G: Histories of Cornell University
Boxes: 33-34
Boxes: 5, 16, 34, and 46
Boxes: 4, 37-40,
43, and 46, 62
Subseries A: Glass Plate Negatives
Boxes: Boxes: 39-41, 43-45