Number of Images: 1; Color: Black and White; Size: 10w x 8h; Type of Image: Group, candid; Medium: Photographic print
Type:
Photographic print
Group, candid
Place:
Africa
Date:
1940
Category:
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Notes:
Feature in the "Torch," October 1989. At the time the article was written the turtle was the Zoo's oldest resident.
Summary:
Dr. William M. Mann (third from right), director of the National Zoo from 1925 to 1956, and his wife, Lucy (standing), are in a canoe with native people as they cross St. Paul's River near Dobli's Island, Liberia, in 1940. This collection expedition, funded by the tire manufacturer, Harvey Firestone, Jr., was the Zoo's last major expedition. Dr. Mann returned from this trip with several hundred animals including pygmy hippopotamuses, monkeys, duiker antelope, rare birds and reptiles (one of which, a Nile soft-shelled turtle came to the National Zoo, Washington, D.C., and lived in the Reptile House until it died in 1993).
Contained within:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 98-015, Box 2, Folder: October 1989
