Theodore Roosevelt, who was born 157 years ago today, provided WCS with the gifts of great moral and political support in the organization’s early years.  It was Roosevelt who appointed the committee of Boone and Crockett Club members who eventually founded the New York Zoological Society.  Roosevelt also endorsed the formation of the American Bison Society and served as its first honorary president.  And he spoke out in support of Bronx Zoo Director William T. Hornaday’s (in the end unsuccessful) 1915 campaign to increase wildlife sanctuaries in national forests.  Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →