Graphical renderings of the “Ocean Wonders” exhibit and features at the NY Aquarium. Image courtesy of Naomi Pearson, EGAD at WCS.

WCS’s National Digital Stewardship Resident, Genevieve Havemeyer-King, has written a post about our digital archives pilot project on the NDSR-NY Program blog:

http://ndsr.nycdigital.org/the-digital-ecosystem-at-the-wildlife-conservation-society/

In the post she “introduce[s] a few complex and exciting digital preservation challenges [she’s] encountered in each department” that she is surveying for the project.

Check it out!

For most of the past year I have been processing historical records from our Ornithology Department, particularly materials from former Curators Joe Bell, Don Bruning, and Christine Sheppard.  These records provide detailed evidence of the Curators’ oversight of bird husbandry and exhibits at the Bronx Zoo, professional leadership in what was then called the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, and commitment to field conservation worldwide.  For the most part, however, this evidence only becomes truly impressive in aggregate: Rather than individual documents providing ‘A-ha!’ moments, it is the very depth and volume of material that gives the collections their historical weight.

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 We’re pleased to report that more of our materials are now available online–specifically some fun Bronx Zoo and New York Aquarium ephemera from our Publications and Printed Ephemera collection.  Thanks to the excellent Culture in Transit Program, we now have 112 additional items up at METRO’s Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York site.  This is a fraction of this large and always growing collection, and we hope to add more in the coming years.  Continue reading →

Throughout the Bronx Zoo’s history, it has been common to receive letters from people wanting to donate animals.  However, in 1901, the Zoo received a letter from a not-so-common person:  Continue reading →

We’re delighted to announce that the WCS Archives has been selected as one of five host institutions for the 2015-2016 New York City cohort of the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) program.  Continue reading →

The WCS Archives is thrilled to announce that we’ve been awarded a Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Planning Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  This grant will allow us to develop the WCS Archives Conceptual Preservation Design Plan. Founded upon preservation strategies that balance effectiveness, cost, and environmental impact, the plan will serve as a crucial first step in the Archives’ development of a new space to preserve our unique historical collections.  Continue reading →

The Bronx Zoo itself is a nostalgic place for many people (myself included), where lifelong memories are made from childhood onward, and close-up animal experiences make nature come alive. It may sound like a cliché, but then again who among us can recall their favorite part of the zoo and not be overwhelmed by affection for the animals found there? My own longtime favorite part of the zoo as a kid was the (now closed) World of Darkness. So, as you can see here, the zoo and I go back quite a ways. Continue reading →

Thirty years ago today, the Bronx Zoo’s JungleWorld exhibit opened to the public.  Posed in the 1985 NYZS Annual Report as an “experiment” that built upon decades of innovations in zoogeographic exhibition, JungleWorld sought to break new ground in wild animal care and exhibition, and it was widely considered the most ambitious indoor zoological environment ever created at the time.  Continue reading →

Image of Helen Martini with baby panther in her Bronx apartment, circa 1940s. Scanned from WCS Photo Collection

Today marks what would have been Helen Martini’s 103rd birthday. For more on her and on this great photo, check out WCS’s Photo Blog, Wild View.

The WCS Archives is very pleased to participate in I ♥ NY’s Path through History Weekend showcasing New York State’s rich history. Come join us on Saturday, June 20, at the Bronx Zoo’s Zoo Center, where we’ll be displaying historical treasures related to the art and architecture of the Bronx Zoo.

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