After a brilliant couple of hours at the London Zoo we had a nice tour and talk at the Zoological Society of London Library. John Edwards, Zoo Historian and Trustee, gave us a detailed background of the Zoological Society. The administrative offices were originally located in Hanover Square because the area where the zoo is located was considered unsafe because of its remoteness. However, by 1910 the area was deemed secure and the building was built in 1910 which holds the administrative offices and the library. The Zoological Society was founded in 1926 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles who died very soon after becoming President of the society. This might have been the end of the organization except that the Treasurer who was a very determined man was able to keep them running.
In the beginning the library was little more than a shelf of books in someone’s office but now it is the largest privately owned zoological collection in the world. There are 12,000 glass plates in the collection as well as a painting dating from 1629 with a dodo painted from life. The library is open to everyone as long as they go through the proper channels to get a library card. It is mostly used by members of staff and researchers.
Emma, the Retrospective Book Cataloger, spoke a little about her role in the library. She is converting the card catalog into an online database. All books prior to 1860 and after 1993 are on the OPAC which leaves quite a large gap that needs to be completed. The classification scheme that is used is BLISS.
Ruth informed us that the library is the center of information for zoos and their history. They take in literature from zoos all around the world including journals for keepers, zoo guides, annual reports, conference proceedings, and stud books. It is very tricky to get a hold of all of the various materials so they never do any weeding of this collection.
Ann, the Librarian, spoke with us about the Archives which include a record of all animals brought to the zoo. A large number of people doing their family histories have made inquiries at the library to see the staff records which date back from the very beginning of the zoo’s opening. They have press cuttings from when Goldie, the golden eagle, escaped and flew around Regent’s Park terrorizing the small dogs there.
We ended the tour with John who spoke about the photographs which the library has in its collection. This was absolutely fascinating and because John has written a book on the subject he was very knowledgeable. The first photos in the collection of the zoo date back from 1864 by Frank Hayes. His photos include the first baby elephant to come to England, Jane. In 1850, the first hippo in Europe since the Romans arrived. Unfortunately, in 1960 the hippo habitat was demolished and they have not had hippos at the zoo since then. In the late 1860s Frederick York took several photographs for commercial purposes using stereoscopic technology which edits the bars of the cage out of the picture. He took photographs of the quagga which looks like a zebra and is the only ones taken of the live animal because it is now extinct. He has several pictures of extinct creatures such as the Syrian and African wild ass. The animal that really struck me as amazing was the pink-headed duck from Bangladesh which has a perfectly spherical head with a shell pink under its wing. The creature has only been photographed in black and white by TJ Dickson and unfortunately is extinct after being wiped out by British Armies.
Cute meerkat pic!
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