Yeah, there were problems. I mean, there were problems especially with the minorities, the African-Americans that I had to work with and actually supervise later on, there was a lot of resentment toward me. There was a lot of resentment toward the new keepers that were coming in, that were… Read More
And a lot of them were at ages where they were gonna be able to retire. And a lot of them did retire in the mid to late ’70s. And so we basically started out with a totally new slate of keeper and curatorial staff. Well, in the ’70s the… Read More
How did the first woman to get her job?… Read More
Now, when you got this position as assistant curator in ’72, they just came and said, do you want it, or do you have to apply for it?… Read More
I didn’t apply for work. I’m probably giving away secrets here. But in the federal system, you learn to work within the federal system and you learn that you can do a lot of things even though somebody tells you, you can’t do it. If whoever wants to do it… Read More
So they bumped me up and it was, I find, when I look back on my career in those early years, it was an amazing period personally for me because I advanced so rapidly into so many different positions and a lot of it caused some controversy, but I mean,… Read More
How did these two groups, these different cultures, how they work together, any problems?… Read More
Well, now, you’re talking about that you held these six different positions at the National Zoo, did you ever think about leaving the zoo, go to somewhere else?… Read More
Well, yes and no. I mean, there were a of times that I got really discouraged when I was in the keeper force. And it actually applied to the graphics department Downtown at Smithsonian. And I actually even applied to the FBI, believe it or not, but this was in… Read More
And it’s six flags, which I didn’t take. There were doing a number of reasons that I didn’t take these positions. One, I really don’t like change. I mean, I’m a pretty steady person. And I mean, I’d spent all my life in Washington, DC. I spent my entire career… Read More
And I’m also, I am to a certain extent a believer in the Peter principle. And I think everybody reaches a point in their career where you can go higher if you want. But if you’re doing a good job in the job you have, why take a job where… Read More
I don’t really think it did. I think for whatever it was about my abilities early on the people that I work with. I think they recognized it. When I worked for Bridgewater. He used me as a more, I hate to use the word hatchet, man, but that’s what… Read More
I had run ins with a lot of people, I’ve run into it Seidensticker Who is?… Read More
John Seidensticker is a senior scientist now, although I think he’s on sabbatical, but he was at the time a curator in the carnivore collection. And Gould quarreled quite a bit and he really resented the fact that Ed had appointed me as associate curator because basically in Gould’s absence,… Read More
And I said, but I don’t think you should hire him. I really don’t, there’s some good quantified people. And ED Gould said, “Well, if that’s what she wants to do, then it’s her decision.” And I don’t know, I mean, I just basically lost it because I took my… Read More
I think the biggest issue that is with anybody that’s in the zoo profession is that you get into the zoo profession because you really have a affinity and love for animals. But as you get more and more into management, you come to realize that if you don’t have… Read More
I think it’s a really, really priority that there needs to be in each be people skills involved in any hire that’s gonna deal with the collections and also deal with the people. Read More
You talked about experience, how you have to communicate with people, et cetera, during that time, how did your management style evolve and how did it change over time?… Read More
And how did animal dealers impact the zoo and what was going on and as your later years in the profession, what did you see their impact was either positive or negative?… Read More
Well, our ability to acquire, I mean, that’s where we got most of our collections was from animal dealers, I mean, there’s no question about that. And we had a lot of animal dealers that we could go to and we relied on them very, very heavily, especially for the… Read More