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 http://sherpaguides.com/georgia/okefenokee_swamp/sidebars/francis_harper.html for information on the Francis Harper Papers, which are housed in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (#3638)). In 1945, the book Our Georgia-Florida Frontier: The Okefenokee Swamp, its History and Cartography. . . was written by A.H. Wright. He also authored of "Pre-Cornell and Early Cornell VIII" as well as numerous other histories on various aspects of Cornell University. He also spent a lot of time on genealogical research related to the Wright family.
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.
From the guide to the Albert Hazen Wright Papers, 1820-1970, (Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)
