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 →

 Few things can compare to the thrill of seeing a whale at sea. Every year, thousands of nature enthusiasts head out to sea in search of these leviathans, which to many have become the embodiment of nature itself. What’s the attraction? Whales are gigantic and graceful animals exquisitely adapted to the marine environment, and—as we have come to learn over the past half century—behaviorally sophisticated and intelligent. As mammals that left the land more than 50 million years ago, they are distant relatives after all, alien yet somehow familiar and endearing. Continue reading →

 Spending months working with historical photos from a specific collection almost creates an illusion that one may have participated in the scenes depicted in these prints.  This notion particularly holds strong when carefully scanning and assigning appropriate metadata to historical photos from scientific research expeditions in beautiful locales filled with wondrous wildlife. Having the privilege to spend my photo archives internship working with many prints from the famous Bathysphere dives conducted by William Beebe and Otis Barton provided me with an imaginary tropical escape while also teaching me invaluable metadata skills. Continue reading →

 Henry W. Elliott, William T. Hornaday, and John Hay spent nearly a decade attempting to save the staggering decimation of the Alaskan fur seals from their mating grounds on the Pribilof Islands. The islands were first discovered by Europeans in 1786 and soon after became part of the Russian Territories. In 1867, they became property of the United States and were later leased to the Alaska Commercial Company, who held the monopoly on seal hunting and pelt trading. The islands were highly sought by hunters for their fur seal rookeries, large areas where thousands of seals gathered to mate, raise their young, and fish.  Continue reading →

We in the WCS Archives were saddened to learn of the passing of John McKew, early Monday, May 19.  John, who was 81, worked for WCS for over 30 years and had a profound impact in shaping many parts of the organization. Senior Conservationist and former WCS President William Conway has written a note in tribute, which he has allowed us to post here.  

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One never knows what oddities or treasures may turn up when undertaking a cataloging project. Given the variety of ephemera collected in scrapbooks, the possibility for unknown treasures is especially exciting. This was certainly the case while creating descriptive metadata for the first scrapbook from William T. Hornaday’s scrapbook collection on the history of wildlife protection and extermination. An innocent attempt to locate the identity of a correspondent led to a scandalous discovery! (Okay, perhaps not that scandalous–but certainly interesting enough to share.)   Continue reading →

Do you know how many bird species were in the Bronx Zoo’s collection in 1932, or how many people visited the zoo that year?  Or when Ookie, the beloved, bewhiskered Pacific walrus, first appeared at the Aquarium?  Or perhaps what wildlife conservation projects the New York Zoological Society sponsored in Indonesia in 1978? Whether you’re doing historical research, just curious, or stocking up for a really strange bar trivia night (we won’t judge!), you can now find the answers by searching the Society’s Annual Reports online. Continue reading →

The brainchild of friends William T. Hornaday and George O. Shields, the Camp Fire Club of America was conceived as a social club–an opportunity for men who loved the outdoors to gather together regularly as they would around a campfire. In particular, Hornaday and Shields (Editor of Recreation magazine, who served briefly in a lobbying role for the New York Zoological Society) intended the CFCA as an outlet for sportsmen who did not meet the high standards of wealth, power, and social ranking required by the Boone and Crockett Club.  [See our earlier post on the B&C Club.]  Continue reading →

We are thrilled to announce that our website displaying scrapbooks compiled by William T. Hornaday, covering his various wildlife conservation campaigns, is now live!  Made possible through the generous funding of the Leon Levy Foundation, the project has been the subject of a few WILD THINGS posts over the past few months, and we are pleased to be able to share the finished product with you now.  You’ll find the site here.  Continue reading →

The famed sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington (AHH) loved big cats. Beginning with her first cat sculptures in 1898, she created dozens of jaguars, leopards, lions, and tigers in all shapes and sizes. AHH’s father, the zoologist and paleontologist Alpheus Hyatt (1838-1902), who worked at the Boston Society of Natural History from 1870 until his death in 1902, undoubtedly nurtured her love of animals. During the 1890s, AHH began studying wild animals in earnest at Norumbega Park in Newton, Massachusetts, and Bostock’s Live Animal Show in Boston.   Continue reading →