James Leon Williams

James Leon Williams
Born	1852
Died	1932
Residence	30 George Street, Hanover Square, W; 84 Fellows Road, Hampstead, NW
Occupation	medical photographer
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1917 last listed elected_AI 1913.06.10 societies International Association for Dental Research

Notes

House Notes

1913.04.22 proposed by Arthur Keith, seconded by William Wright

Notes From Elsewhere

James Leon Williams (April 18, 1852 – February 23, 1932) was an American prosthodontist and a pioneer dental histologist.[1] He discovered dental plaque
In 1785, Leon's great-grandfather, Jacob Williams, a U.S. Army captain during the American Revolution, settled in Maine. A native of Massachusetts, he had a son, Richard, around the year 1794. On May 25, 1829, Richard had a son, Calvin, who would be Leon's father.[2]
Sometime around 1879, J. Leon Williams began a two-year apprenticeship by a Dr. Roberts in North Vassalboro, Maine and later began practicing in the same town. Williams later passed examinations for the DDS degree at the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery and the equivalent LDS degree in Ireland.[3] He joined the Maine Dental Society and used the opportunity to borrow their microscope to study the histology and pathology of tooth enamel.[3]
In the early 1880s, common crown and bridge techniques were not well known or widespread. Williams sought to make information on these techniques available to all dentists through the pages of The Dental Cosmos.[3] In 1885, he embarked on a journey to improve the state of dental prostheses by designing more aesthetic artificial teeth that better matched the overall facial dimensions of the patient. He convinced an American artificial tooth manufacturer to take up his cause and produce his designs, on the condition that other dentists would embrace the new forms.[3]
Williams also practiced dentistry in London and was one of the founders of the International Association for Dental Research.[3]
He also was the author of The Home and Haunts of Shakespeare[4] and had an interest in anthropology, including the Piltdown Man
Williams was a dentist and a scholar, the inventor of modern dentures, and a photographer of considerable talent. He was one of the first American photographers to grasp the artistic potential of the photogravure process. Williams' work follows the precepts of the "Naturalistic" school of photography founded by Peter Henry Emerson. Emerson advised photographers to keep the central subject of the composition sharp, allowing the focus to drop off in the background. The resulting atmospheric effect was thought to be more "natural," because Emerson believed the human eye could concentrate its focus on only a single plane.

Publications

External Publications

The Home and Haunts of Shakespeare (Scribner's, New York: 1892) [photographs]