Roy Latham: Long Island Naturalists Series #2

Saturday, November 14, 2026

11:00 AM

Historic Third House, 1929 Montauk Highway, Montauk

Third House Nature Center is thrilled to host the second installment of our “Long Island

Naturalists” series. This program explores the origins of the American naturalist movement in the early 20th century, highlighting the region's most influential environmentalists and

conservationists.

Our featured subject is the legendary naturalist and Orient native Roy Latham (1881–1979),

who spent decades documenting the natural world of the East End. A self-taught naturalist as well as a potato farmer and commercial fisherman—Latham amassed exhaustive taxidermic collections of birds, mammals, insects, fish, and Indigenous artifacts, creating one of the most complete portraits of Long Island wildlife ever assembled.

Join us for a special presentation by John Holzapfel of the Oysterponds Historical

Society. John has meticulously transcribed and digitized a vast collection of Latham's natural

history journals and field notes. He will take us on a virtual tour of these documents, sharing the story of how they were acquired and preserved.

John Holzapfel taught science on Long Island for nearly three decades, mostly at Shoreham-Wading River High School and an adjunct at SCCC, and later founded the Oysterponds Shellfish Company; he also served as a Southold Town Trustee and has lectured widely on nature, the environment and Roy Latham. A member of the Oysterponds Historical Society since 1990 and a past Board President, he helped recover Latham’s journals and correspondence in 2023 and has led the work of transcribing and cataloging the Roy Latham Papers.

As an added highlight, Third House is privileged to display a collection of Roy Latham-based

photographs on loan from the Oysterponds Historical Society. We look forward to seeing you there!