To continue celebrating women in natural history with the Biodiversity Heritage Library, we’re concluding Women’s History Month highlighting Helen Martini. At a time when there was little formal training in caring for zoo animals, Helen Martini used her own intuition, research, and experience to help successfully raise dozens of Bronx Zoo baby animals–at first in her own apartment and eventually in the Bronx Zoo’s first animal nursery, which she began. She never published any technical writings on her work, instead sharing her experiences in a memoir called “My Zoo Family.” Here she is caring for three jaguar cubs and a tiger cub in this 1940s photo.

View on Instagram

Happy First Day of Spring! Here are the gardens at the Bronx Zoo in full bloom in 1910.

View on Instagram

Did you know that alligators sometimes bellow together to create their own little chorus? In a 1919 article from a WCS published magazine, there is a story about the Bronx Zoo alligators singing along to the whistles of ships returning to New York from World War I. Here we have the article as well as a photo of the largest alligator at the Zoo at the time. For more, read the blog post at Wild View.

It’s International Women’s Day! We’re joining the Biodiversity Heritage Library in celebrating women in natural history by featuring the work of artist Else Bostelmann.

From 1929 to 1934, Bostelmann served as a member of WCS’s Department of Tropical Research staff.  Using her artist’s skills, she brought to life the incredible marine creatures the DTR explored in the deep seas around Bermuda.  Some of her work was featured in National Geographic, making visible for the first time these never-before-seen species.

View on Instagram.

We’re showcasing Life Below Water for today’s World Wildlfe Day with this invitation to the Shark Tank opening at the New York Aquarium in 1980. We celebrate #MarineSpecies and all wildlife past, present, and future.

View on Instagram

This week 90 years ago, the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, otherwise known as the Norbeck-Andresen Sanctuary Bill, was passed. Bronx Zoo Director William Hornaday campaigned for nearly a decade for the bill, which laid the foundation for the creation of protected areas for birds. Here we have a 1928 letter from Hornaday to Norbeck as well as an article he wrote about the bill, both showing his characteristic passion for wildlife conservation.

View on Instagram

It’s cold out there! In 1906, Bronx Zoo employees harvested ice from Lake Agassiz at the zoo to help with refrigeration needs at the park.

View on Instagram

“Euchromid on moss” by George Swanson from the Illustrations of the Department of Tropical Research, 1945.

View on Instagram

Manta ray fins emerge from the ocean with Arcturus in the background. The Department of Tropical Research went on the Arcturus Expedition to investigate the Sargasso Sea, Humboldt Current, and the Hudson Canyon in 1925.

View on Instagram

If you’ve got it, flaunt it! Crowds at the Bronx Zoo admire an Indian Peafowl by the old Aquatic Bird House circa 1911.

View on Instagram