NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK COMMISSION RECORDS, 1889-1891.
Type:
Archival materials
Note:
These records document some of the proceedings of the National Zoological Park Commission and its agents. Additional records on this topic are in boxes 288 and 289.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 74, National Zoological Park, Records
Folder 7 National Zoological Park Commission. Maps, 1889-1914, and undated. Includes a topographic survey map drawn by Howell and Greenough, United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1889 and 1890.
Container:
Box 6 of 289
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 74, National Zoological Park, Records
Folder 8 National Zoological Park Commission. Printed documents, 1887-1891. Also contains a typed manuscript regarding the creation of a Zoological Society in Washington, D.C., 1870. The Society was to establish a zoological garden containing various a...
Container:
Box 6 of 289
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 74, National Zoological Park, Records
Folder 6 National Zoological Park Commission. Contains a form used by the Commission requesting landowners to submit a price for the purchase of their land and a review of the powers of the Commission by the Attorney General, 1889.
Container:
Box 289 of 289
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 74, National Zoological Park, Records
The earliest records concerning the National Zoological Park date from 1887. They were kept by the Office of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution until 1890,
when they were transferred to Holt House, the Park's administrative headquarters. During the late 1960's the records were transferred to the custody of the Smithsonian Institution
Archives. The finding aid for these records was first written in 1972 and revised in 1989.
The Archives would like to thank Dr. Theodore H. Reed, former director of the National Zoological Park, and Sybil E. Hamlet, Public Information Officer, NZP, for their
support and assistance in the transfer of the records to the Archives, and in providing historical information necessary for the processing of these records.
Descriptive Entry:
The records of the National Zoological Park document the development of the Park, from the site survey work begun by William T. Hornaday in 1888 through the beginnings
of its modernization plans in 1965.
Several series of records are of particular importance. They include records of the National Zoological Park Commission, 1889-1891, and records created by William T. Hornaday,
who had a significant part to play in the early development of the Park. Some of these records also demonstrate the important influence of Secretary Samuel P. Langley, who
succeeded in persuading Congress to authorize the Park, and who kept it under his close personal supervision until he died in 1906. This material consists of minutes of the
founding Commission, plats, maps, blueprints, photographs, and correspondence documenting acquisition of land for the Park, as well as records detailing the Park's changing
boundaries, layouts of buildings and grounds, and construction of buildings. A more detailed description of the Park's correspondence system can be found in series 12 through
14. Additional information regarding the Commission's activities and Langley's close involvement with the Zoo may be found in Record Unit 31, the incoming correspondence of
the Office of the Secretary (Samuel P. Langley), 1891-1906, and related records to 1908, and Record Unit 34, the Secretary's outgoing correspondence, 1887-1907.
Correspondence in these records embraces a number of other subjects as well. Acquisition of specimens is extensively documented. Animals were obtained from donors, from
dealers in wild animals, from circuses, from American military and diplomatic personnel, from participation in various American expositions, and from expeditions abroad for
the purpose of collecting animals for the Park. Collections gathered abroad came from the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition (1909), the Smithsonian-Chrysler Expedition
(1926-1927), the Argentine Expedition (1938-1939), the Antarctic Expedition (1939-1940), and the Firestone-Smithsonian Expedition (1940-1941). In addition, the Park provided
specimen exhibitions and built facilities for several expositions, including the Pan-American Exposition (1901-1902), the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904), the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific
Exposition (1909), and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1914-1917). Record Unit 70 documents the Smithsonian's participation in expositions in detail.
The records also document the more mundane aspects of Park administration. There is considerable correspondence between the Park's director and colleagues at other institutions
at home and abroad, and with various federal agencies. There is particularly full documentation of dealings with federal offices in control of animal quarantine regulations
and with the rebuilding of the Park by various New Deal agencies in the 1930's. There are daily diaries of the superintendents, directors, and assistant directors of the Park
(1895-1930), as well as diaries and daily reports of various subordinate staff members.
Lastly, records of the Park document Samuel P. Langley's 1901-1903 research on the flight of birds, Frank Baker's survey of private and public zoological parks and his
buffalo census, 1902-1905, and Baker's involvement on a subcommittee entrusted with recommending a site for a zoological park to the New York Zoological Society.
Historical Note:
In 1989 the National Zoological Park celebrated its centennial. However, as early as 1855 the Smithsonian had received gifts of live animals. In addition, the United
States National Museum acquired living animals for life studies in order to create lifelike specimens for exhibit in the Museum. Since there were no facilities for caring
for animals not used as specimens, those animals were either transferred to the Superintendent of the United States Insane Asylum (now St. Elizabeth's Hospital) for the amusement
of its patients or else sent to the Philadelphia Zoological Garden.
However, parochial needs were not the only source for the idea of a national zoological park. During the last quarter of the nineteenth century there was growing concern
that a number of animals would soon become extinct in their natural habitats, among them the American buffalo. William T. Hornaday, taxidermist at the Institution since 1882,
had found the National Museum with only a few inferior specimens of the buffalo; and, with the support of Secretary Spencer F. Baird, he traveled to Montana in May and again
in September of 1886 to collect specimens while they could still be had. Hornaday was able to collect numerous specimens. However, the state of the buffalo herds he observed
during these trips evidently affected him deeply. In 1888, he published his The Extermination of the American Bison. Already, in March 1887 he had proposed to Secretary Baird
that a zoological park be established in Washington under the Smithsonian's direction. Baird died before anything could be done; but in October 1887, with the consent of the
new Secretary, Samuel P. Langley, a new Division of Living Animals was created in the U. S. National Museum and Hornaday was made its curator. In 1888 Hornaday had, at Secretary
Langley's direction, undertaken a survey of land along Rock Creek in northwest Washington lying between the White House and Georgetown to determine its suitability as a zoo
site.
The National Zoological Park was established by an Act of Congress in March 1889. The Secretary of the Smithsonian, the Secretary of the Interior, and the President of
the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, were constituted as Commissioners of a National Zoological Park in order to purchase land for a zoo in the District
of Columbia, "...for the advancement of science and the instruction and recreation of the people." The commissioners ultimately acquired one hundred and sixty-four acres at
this site, some by condemnation, most by purchase. In April 1890 Congress passed another act, placing the National Zoological Park under the direction of the Board of Regents
of the Smithsonian Institution. Half its operating funds were to come from the federal government, half from the District of Columbia. The Board was authorized to expend funds,
transfer and exchange specimens, accept gifts, and to generally oversee Zoo operations.
Secretary Langley wanted the best professional advice in planning the layout and design of the Park, and Frederick Law Olmsted, the noted landscape architect, was consulted
about all aspects of the Park's layout and design, including pathways, animal enclosures, public access, and the like. Copies of Olmsted's drawings and sketches are at the
National Zoological Park today. In practice, however, much of Olmsted's advice was ignored, either because the Park lacked funds to follow his plans or because Secretary Langley
often chose to follow his own counsel.
Hornaday became the first Superintendent of the Park but soon resigned because of differences of opinion with Secretary Langley over the scope of the superintendent's authority
to control Park operations. In 1890 Frank Baker, Assistant Superintendent of the Light House Service, was appointed Acting Manager in place of Hornaday. From 1893 to until
his retirement in 1916 Baker served as superintendent. These early years were full of difficulties. While the Rock Creek site had much natural charm, it was necessary to balance
the demands for building construction, park layout and roads, and acquisition of animals--all on an extremely tight budget. Still, as the more mundane affairs of the Park
moved slowly forward, there were important "firsts" as well. In 1891 Dunk and Gold Dust, the Park's first elephants, arrived. They were great favorites at the Park, notwithstanding
their reputations as troublemakers in the circus which sold them to their new owner. That same year came French, the first lion, then only a cub, who was sold to the Park
after he began to alarm the neighbors of his owner in Alderson, West Virginia. During its early years the Park was also the site of Secretary Langley's efforts to study and
film the flight of birds, work he undertook as part of his effort to produce a manned flying machine.
On Baker's retirement in 1916, Ned Hollister, an assistant curator of mammals in the U. S. National Museum, was appointed to succeed him. Hollister served until his death
in 1924. During his tenure the Park continued to receive very modest appropriations. On that account, it was not possible to purchase much zoo stock; but gifts were numerous.
In 1922, they ranged from an opossum given by President Harding to the 15 mammals, 50 birds, and 17 reptiles collected by William M. Mann while on expedition with the Mulford
Biological Exploration of the Amazon Basin. Housing for the animals remained inadequate, and many old structures had to remain in use. In 1924 the Park did manage to construct
its first restaurant for the use of visitors, who numbered more than 2.4 million people in that year. Superintendent Hollister died in 1924 and was succeeded by Alexander
Wetmore, who served only five months before leaving to become Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
In 1925, Dr. William M. Mann became Superintendent (Director after 1926) of the National Zoological Park, a job he was to hold until his retirement in 1956. He hoped to
build a zoo which housed a first-class collection in a first-class environment. As in the past, there was little money for purchase of animals, so he continued to rely on
gifts. Mann was a good publicist, and he enlisted the sympathies of Walter P. Chrysler. On March 20, 1926, the Smithsonian-Chrysler Expedition set out, arriving at Dar-es-Salaam,
Tanganyika, on May 5 of that year. The expedition was a splendid success and returned with 158 mammals, 584 birds, 56 snakes, 12 lizards, 393 tortoises, and 1 frog. Many specimens,
like the giraffe, were quite new to the Park. The male and female impala obtained were the only ones in any zoo in the world at that time.
On his return, Mann finally succeeded in obtaining an appropriation for a new bird house to replace the one erected 37 years before. A reptile house followed in 1929. In
1935 some of the Zoo's remaining need for new buildings was finally met. The Public Works Administration, a New Deal relief program, allocated $680,000 for the construction
of a Small Mammal and Great Ape House, a Pachyderm House, an addition to the Bird House, and several operations buildings. One of the New Deal's programs for the relief of
artists, the Treasury Department's Section of Painting and Sculpture, furnished artists to decorate areas of the Zoo. In fact, the Park employed more artists than any other
local institution.
In 1937 the Park was once more the beneficiary of a collecting expedition, the National Geographic Society-Smithsonian Institution Expedition to the Dutch East Indies.
Mann brought back with him 74 crates of mammals, 112 crates of birds, and 30 crates of reptiles. In 1940 Harvey Firestone, Jr., offered to finance a collecting expedition
to Liberia. Again, the expedition supplied the Park with many specimens, including a female pygmy hippopotamus, Matilda, as companion for the lonely Billy, already at the
Park.
When World War II began, the Zoo could not escape its effects. In fact, in 1942 for fear that poisonous snakes might be released from their cages if the Reptile House were
struck by an air raid, all the Park's collection of cobras and other venomous snakes was traded to other locations less likely to undergo air attacks. Subsequently, the Park
spent some time making repairs and resuming normal activities. In 1956 Dr. Mann retired and was succeeded by acting Director Theodore H. Reed, who was made Director in 1958.
In 1958 the Friends of the National Zoo, a group dedicated to supporting the National Zoo and maintaining its reputation as one of the world's great zoos, was organized. In
1960 the Park's budget exceeded a million dollars for the first time. For many years the formula which charged half the Park's expenses to the budget of the District of Columbia
had caused a great deal of difficulty. Local residents felt they were being taxed to pay for an institution national in character. Park officials argued that they needed more
money than the existing formula could provide. Finally, in 1961, a compromise was reached. All costs for construction and repair of the Park would be carried in the appropriation
for the Smithsonian Institution. The District of Columbia would contribute only to the Park's operating costs. As if to give the new arrangement a good send-off, in 1962 Congress
appropriated four million dollars for the Park, more than half of it earmarked for a perimeter road around the Zoo and a tunnel to carry automobile traffic through the Zoo.
In this way, it was at last possible to close the Park proper to through traffic and to devote the Park reservation solely to strengthening and improving the National Zoological
Park's programs.
Chronology:
October 1887 -- Department of Living Animals created under the direction of the United States National Museum
1888 -- William T. Hornaday, curator of the Department of Living Animals, directed by Secretary Samuel P. Langley to draw up a preliminary plan for the Zoo
March 1889 -- Congress authorized the formation of a National Zoological Park Commission to select and purchase land for a zoological park
April 1890 -- Congress placed the National Zoological Park (NZP) under the Smithsonian Institution's Board of Regents
May 1890 -- Frederick Law Olmsted invited by Langley to consult on the layout of the Zoo
May 10, 1890 -- Hornaday appointed superintendent of the Zoo
June 1, 1890 -- Frank Baker appointed temporary acting manager of the NZP
June 9, 1890 -- Hornaday resigned
-- 1891 Buffalo and elk barn built
January 29, 1891 -- William H. Blackburne appointed first head keeper
April 30, 1891 -- First animals, two male Indian elephants, Dunk and Gold Dust, brought to Zoo grounds
June 27, 1891 -- First group of animals moved from Mall to NZP
1892 -- Authorization to purchase and transport animals revoked for six years
1892 -- First permanent building completed. Called the main animal house, it was later renamed the Lion House.
1893 -- Baker appointed superintendent
1894 -- First beaver arrived from Yellowstone National Park. They inhabited "Missouri Valley," later called "Beaver Valley."
1898 -- Antelope House built
1898 -- NZP given authorization by Congress to purchase animals
1899 -- Illustrated circular on animals desired by NZP distributed to United States officers stationed overseas
1900 -- As a result of the circular, animals were received from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Panama, and the Philippine Islands
1900 -- New iron bridge constructed across the creek at Harvard Street (then called Quarry Road)
1901 -- Twenty-inch sundial purchased in London and installed on lawn near the Animal House
1902 -- A flying cage was completed
November 1902 -- Two fifty-foot towers erected in order to provide platforms for photographers to take pictures of flying vultures. Work was in conjunction with Langley's research on flight.
1903 -- New Elephant House completed
1903 -- NZP received its first Kodiak bear
November 24, 1904 -- President Theodore Roosevelt gives the Zoo an ostrich, the gift of King Menelik of Abyssinia
1908 -- Last of the bear cages were completed
1909 -- Theodore Roosevelt in British East Africa on a Smithsonian collecting expedition. Friend William Northrup Macmillan offered NZP his animal collection if transported by a Zoo official. Assistant superintendent A. B. Baker transferred the animals to the Park.
1913 -- Cook House used for food storage and preparation was built
1916 -- Estimated attendance reached over one and one-half million visitors
November 1, 1916 -- Baker retired. Ned Hollister appointed superintendent.
August 13, 1917 -- Zoo purchased first motor truck
October 1, 1920 -- Visitor attendance reached two million
1921 -- Two giant tortoises received from Albemarle and Indefatigable Islands
May 24, 1922 -- African Cape big-eared fox transported to the Zoo. First of its species to be exhibited alive in America.
November 3, 1924 -- Ned Hollister died. Alexander Wetmore appointed interim superintendent.
May 13, 1925 -- William M. Mann appointed superintendent
May-October 1926 -- Smithsonian-Chrysler Fund Expedition to Tanganyika (now Tanzania). 1,203 animals transferred to the Zoo.
1928 -- First breeding of an American white pelican on record
June 1928 -- New Bird House opened
February 27, 1931 -- Reptile House opened. Voted by the American Institute of Architects as the outstanding brick building in the east.
October 7, 1932 -- Eagle Cage completed
November 23, 1933 -- The only maned wolf from South America to be exhibited in a zoo was received by the NZP
June 21, 1934 -- Zoo received its first Komodo dragon
January 16, 1935 -- NZP received a $680,000 Public Works Administration appropriation. Funds would provide for the construction of a Small Mammal and Great Ape House, Elephant House, addition to the Bird House, two shops, and a central heating plant.
January 12, 1937 -- Lucile and William Mann depart on the National Geographic Society-Smithsonian Institution Expedition to the East Indies
September 27, 1938 -- 879 specimens from the East Indies Expedition are received at the Zoo
April 6, 1939 -- Lucile and William Mann leave for a collecting trip in Argentina
June 27, 1939 -- 316 specimens are received at the Zoo from the trip to Argentina
November 11, 1939 -- Zoo keeper Malcolm Davis sailed with Admiral Richard E. Byrd to establish bases during the Antarctica Expedition.
February 17, 1940 -- Lucile and William Mann leave on the Smithsonian Institution-Firestone Expedition to Liberia
March 5, 1940 -- Zoo received first emperor penguin collected by Davis while on Antarctica expedition
August 6, 1940 -- Zoo received 195 specimens collected in Liberia
December 31, 1943 -- Blackburne retired from Zoo at 87, after fifty-two years of service
June 29, 1950 -- Smokey Bear, a four-month old cub, arrived at the Zoo
November 5, 1953 -- Two Philippine macaques, Pat and Mike, launched by an Aerobee rocket to an altitude of 200,000 feet, were transferred to the Zoo by the United States Air Force
July 15, 1955 -- Theodore H. Reed became the Zoo's first full-time veterinarian
October 31, 1956 -- Mann retired. Theodore H. Reed appointed acting director.
1957 -- The Zoo was the first to use the Cap-Chur gun for the immobilization and/or treatment of animals
March/April 1957 -- United States Signal Corps transferred two hero pigeons to NZP. Anzio Boy and Global Girl completed sixty-one missions between them.
March 12, 1958 -- Reed appointed director of the Zoo
April 10, 1958 -- Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ) organized
April 16, 1958 -- Female banded linsang received as a gift from a staff officer stationed in Kuala Lampur, Malaya. The species had never been exhibited at the Zoo, and was the only one in captivity.
May 16, 1958 -- Julie Ann Vogt, two-and-a-half years old, was killed by one of the Zoo's lions
May 18, 1958 -- First birth of a female snow leopard in the Western Hemisphere
September 1958 -- First wisent born in this country
July 1, 1960 -- Davis retired after spending thirty-three years at the Zoo
December 5, 1960 -- Female white tiger, Mohini, received as a gift from the chairman of the board of Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation
December 16, 1960 -- A master plan for the development of the Zoo was presented to the Smithsonian by the president of FONZ
September 9, 1961 -- A male gorilla, Tomoka, was born, the second born in captivity in the world
1962 -- An appropriation of 1.3 million dollars was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee as an initial investment on a ten-year capital improvement program
April 17, 1962 -- The Zoo hired its first zoologist
April 5, 1963 -- Ham, the chimponaut, was formally transferred to the Zoo by the United States Air Force. On January 31, 1961, Ham handled the controls on a Redstone rocket. Traveling up to a speed of 5,887 miles per hour, Ham was on-board the rocket for a 16.5 minute flight. Three months later, Commander Alan B. Shepard operated Mercury 3, the United States' first manned space mission.
1964 -- Several construction projects, including reconstruction of the Bird House, a new Great Flight Cage, parking lots and roads were going on at the same time
January 6, 1964 -- Mohini gave birth to three cubs, one of which was white
September 1, 1965 -- Zoo hired first resident scientist to supervise the Scientific Research Department
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK COMMISSION RECORDS, 1888-1891.
Type:
Archival materials
Note:
The following records were added to this record unit after the original finding aid was completed. Researchers should consult series 4 for similar material.
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 74, National Zoological Park, Records
Folder 3 National Zoological Park Commission. Samuel P. Langley notes on the history of the NZP. Also includes Olmsted discussion and congressional bills, 1888-1890, and undated.
Container:
Box 289 of 289
Type:
Archival materials
Collection Citation:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 74, National Zoological Park, Records
