Optional Visit - Zoological Society of London

The London Zoo was so much fun! We spent the morning touring the Zoo, and were able to go on an exclusive tour of the Zoological Society of London in the afternoon. Their website has tons of information and can be found here. The morning went by far too quickly, but I have found that it always feels like that when I go to the zoo. My favorites were the white pelicans, giraffes and the monkeys with mustaches, which I believe are the Emperor Tamarin monkeys. At the Zoological Society (ZSL), we spoke with John Edwards, who showed us his book on photography at the London Zoo. I loved seeing the photographs, and hearing why zoo photography is so important! Its something I never would have considered. Being a zoo historian, he also gave us some background information on the ZSL. Sir Stamford Raffles founded the ZSL in 1826. He was impressed by the Paris Zoo that began as a garden, but later had animals when the Versailles menagerie was brought there. The Paris Zoo also had a library. Raffles expected government assistance with his project, but never received any. Two months after becoming president of the ZSL, Raffles passed away. His successor was the society’s treasurer, Joseph Sabine, who kept the society going. Originally there was a library and a museum kept in the offices, but the museum’s artifacts eventually went to the Natural History Museum. The Duke of Wellington was present on the Zoo’s opening day, and Queen Victoria visited on her birthday in 1828. The Zoo’s collection was built very slowly, and originally consisted of bears, birds, and llamas. The first publications by the ZSL were minutes of their meetings, then transactions reports. Eventually a journal was published, which greatly helped the growth of the Zoo. Now it is the largest privately owned zoological collection in the world.

In the library, we spoke with Emma, the retrospective book cataloguer, about her project. She is cataloguing the collection from 1860 to 1993. They are doing the project in house so that they can check for correctness and check the stock at the same time. This also provides an opportunity to weed through the collection. She is working on the title cards from the catalogue, and completes between fifty and seventy books per week. Ruth showed us the information that the library holds on zoos themselves. They have journals and newsletters from zoos around the world. These are useful for best practices information. They collect all books about zoos from around the world and in all languages, as well as books about zoo animals. She showed us an old zoo guide, with an animal on the cover that is now extinct. They have annual reports, conference proceedings, stud books, husbandry material, and of course the ZSL Journal of Zoology. Zoo workers or anyone interested in the history of zoos will find these materials useful. I had no idea how much information this library would have on zoos worldwide, and I enjoyed seeing just what kind of work they do.