These two photos make no sense at all. Look at all the elephants in the top picture? It is reported that Ringling used to house there elephants at Central Park before the Garden opening,but the whole area is changed. The "hilly" area they are standing in, is the hippo enclosure in the picture below with a pool. As fast as the "ivy" has grown on the wall behind, I would suggest it might be Kudzu. The small "building" on the left on legs, is a red fox exhibit with what must be a manager beside it. The manger is gone in the in the top picture and replaced with "cows"?
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Vintage Central Park Zoo--New York City
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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4 comments:
I believe the large building in the background of these postcards is the famed Armory which stood in the park next to the zoo. Barnum & Bailey put the its two celebrated chimps, Chiko and Johanna on display there during the winters in the 1890s - - it was heated.
Some insist that the old Central Park zoo was not really a zoo but only a menagerie because it lacked professional staff and proper organization. It that is true, however, very few 19th and early 20th century American zoos would qualify as such for most were no more sophisticated than Central Park if that.
Central Park was not a depositary for Ringling animals but it was for many of Barnum’s. Remember, until 1881 he had no winter quarters as such and during the winters he put his animals in places like Central Park. He had some really rare stuff there like Indian rhinos.
The Central Park zoo was also a temporary stable for animals imported by dealers. They would stop there while being sold to circuses and other zoos. What may have been the first African elephants brought to America spent some time at Central Park.
Richard,
That's what I am talking about. Great stuff, thank you. And I fully agree with your statement that the staff was not real qualified, from the Directors on down, and it wasn't so long ago that buying a monkey and building a cage, made you a "Zoo Director."
How do you explain the elephants in an area that was a hippo exhibit with a tank. I don't think they would rip it out to have a place to turn the elephants loose during an occasional visit from Barnum's elephants. What a load of elephants though.
Wade
That's indeed the Armory in the background. These illustrations aren't entirely accurate. There's actually a wonderful book of photographs of the zoo if you can find it. I would venture the zoo in Central Park has been reinvented more times than most parks. The original menagerie opened in the 1860's on sixty acres and building and exhibits were created and recreated over the next forty years. Some very talented animal keepers worked in the park, especially in the '80's and '90s, and their experience was important to a younger generation of animal guys who cut their teeth at the American Museum and went on to the Bronx. The zoo was rebuilt from the bottom up in the 1930's. It was certainly an improvement over the decaying menagerie and included the construction of the brick buildings I associated with the zoo when I was growing up. I think in a sense however both the menagerie after about 1900 and the "Moses" zoo of the '30's were decidedly "second class" compared to the Bronx The third Central Park Zoo built twenty years ago by Wildlife Conservation Society is everything that a small urban zoo should be.
Ben
Ben,
Good insight. Thank you. Who were some of the individuals you were referencing as coming from there?
Here is a quote from Herb Clement, Director of the Children's Zoo, when it closed in 1991:
A man who appeared to be enjoying the whole scene immensely was Herb Clement. He called the old zoo inhumane to animals and welcomed the new design.
''I feel it was kitsch when I took it over and it was kitsch when it closed, he said. It's much more important to put the emphasis on nature and animals. He had one boast: I was able to find a home for every single animal, down to the last mouse and the last gerbil.''
Herb wrote a number of books related to the zoo field, and is a CFA and a member of the Felix Adler Tent in New Jersey. I used to enjoy his tale's when we played the Garden each year.
Wade
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