Beebe, << BEE bee, >> William (1877-1962), was a well-known American naturalist and writer. He gained fame for his vivid accounts of tropical jungles, his explorations into the depths of the sea, and his studies of birds, especially pheasants. He became curator of ornithology (bird study) at the New York Zoological Society in 1899. He helped found the Society’s Tropical Research Department in 1916, and became the director of this department.
Beebe conducted expeditions to Borneo, British Guiana (now Guyana), and Trinidad. His many books include Jungle Peace (1918) and Half Mile Down (1934), in which he tells of his undersea adventures in an underwater observation device called a bathysphere. He also wrote Beneath Tropic Seas (1928), Book of Bays (1942), and High Jungle (1949). Beebe was born on July 29, 1877, in Brooklyn, New York. He died on June 4, 1962.
