Allison Armour graduated from the Harvard School in Chicago in 1880 and then received a BA degree from Yale in 1984. He was known for archeology and plant research and from 1925-31 conducted eight voyages for plant research for the US Department of Agriculture, also conducting archeology research on those trips, which became known as the Allison V. Armour Expeditions. The voyages were aboard the Utowana and were made throughout the Mediterranean, North and West Africa, the Canary and Balearic Islands, Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, Mexico, the Gulf of California, Central and South America and the West Indies. In 1931, Armour received the Frank N. Meyer Medal for Foreign Plant Introduction from the American Genetic Association in recognition of the importance of these expeditions to the field of agricultural and horticultural plant introduction. In World War I, Armour served in Naval Intelligence. He became a member of the IOC in 1908 and served through 1920.
United States