Today, if you want information on an animal, you might turn to the internet, and look it up on Google or Wikipedia. If you want information on the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Bronx Zoo, or one of the other wildlife parks, you might go to their website, read their FAQs, or go to the “contact us” page for email information. In 1965, however, such information was not a just a click away. If you had a school project, or needed animal information for another reason, you might write to the zoo. And if you were Assistant Curator of Birds and Mammals Grace Davall, part of your job would be responding to these inquiries.  Continue reading →

Betty and Veronica, the two grizzly bears who have recently moved from the Bronx Zoo to take up residence at the Central Park Zoo, have been local media stars lately, appearing in the New York Times, the Post, and on several news stations.

But these two are no strangers to fame: in fact, in 2004, they were the cover stars of Archie Comic No. 550.  Continue reading →

 Since September I have worked with the WCS Library and Archives in their ongoing effort to digitize historical photographic holdings. My focus has been on a collection documenting one of the expeditions made by the Society’s Department of Tropical Research. William Beebe led this 1925 expedition from New York to the Galapagos on a ship named Arcturus.   Continue reading →

 Processing the records of the New York Zoological Society’s (now the Wildlife Conservation Society) Center for Field Biology and Conservation (CFBC) was like a crash course in the Society’s field research and wildlife conservation efforts of the 1970s. In this post, I’ll give you a glimpse of both the CFBC’s history, as seen through its records, and the processing process itself. (Archival terms are linked to the Society of American Archivists glossary.)  Continue reading →

From its inception, the Bronx Zoo has been home to a library as well as to its many wonderful animals.  In fact, in the first annual report, 1896 of the New York Zoological Society (today the Wildlife Conservation Society), gifts of books were solicited, “especially those on mammals, birds and reptiles, books of travel and exploration, and files of scientific journals in which zoological subjects have a place.”  Continue reading →

 One way to trace the history of an organization is through the people who worked for it.

Recently, I’ve been working on a project to write biographies of some key figures in the history of WCS and upload these to Wikipedia. This has the advantage of not only providing a historical resource about the person but also broadening awareness of WCS’s history.   Continue reading →

Over the past several months the WCS Archives has processed six collections, five of which are wholly or partially open for research.   The finding aids for these collections have joined the descriptions of previously processed archival collections available through the WCS Library’s public website, www.wcs.org/library.  (The direct link to the Archives’ finding aids is: http://ielc.libguides.com/wcs/archives_fas.)  Included below are the abstracts for and links to the collections’ finding aids, plus an image or document from each. Continue reading →

Charles Gandal–or “Chick”, as he was affectionately called–served as the Chief Veterinarian of the New York Zoological Society from 1958 until 1969. With specializations in anesthesia and nutrition, along with an extensive knowledge of avian and reptilian diseases, Gandal was a dedicated veterinarian who was always busy caring for the animals at the zoo and researching how to more effectively treat them.

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This week on Wild Things, we’re celebrating a big Bronx Zoo milestone: the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the new Aquatic Birds House. On September 24, 1964, New York Zoological Society members flocked (sorry! had to do it!) to a preview of the new exhibit, which featured herons and spoonbills, rails and stilts, flamingos and ibises, storks and jacanas, avocets and hammerheads, stints and plovers, terns and cormorants, and other birds dependent on wetlands. Continue reading →

Processing the collection of Gloria Hollister Anable has been an enlightening experience not only because of her extraordinary life but also because of her obscurity. Relatively unknown outside of conservation circles, Hollister took part in several expeditions for the New York Zoological Society (NYZS), including Dr. William Beebe’s expeditions to Bermuda. During one such expedition to Nonsuch Island, Hollister descended in the Bathysphere, an underwater submersible, to a depth of 1,208 feet – at that time a record for a deep-sea dive completed by a woman. Hollister led her own expedition to British Guiana in 1936, worked in the first Red Cross blood bank during World War II, and in the 1950s was chairwoman of the Mianus River Gorge Conservation Committee. Continue reading →