And I remember he was one of the, Boese was one of the finalists at the, when Ted retired from the National Zoo, because I remember his name on the list. And that created problems for him later, (sighs) oh God, this is a complicated thing. Okay, I knew that… Read More
So the county board decided that they, or cultural organizations needed to be more proactive in raising money and voted for the Milwaukee Public Museum, that the top, the director and all the assistant directors had to, how did they put it?… Read More
And so whenever we had to do anything with, you know, animal escape drills, you had three different groups that you have to deal with, because it depends on if the animal’s gonna get out, where is it gonna go?… Read More
Is it gonna be in Milwaukee?… Read More
is it gonna be in Wauwatosa? Is it gonna be in West Allis?… Read More
And there were two zoological societies competing for a while, I guess, and both German. And didn’t get along and never got along. And the Washington Park Zoological Society was the one that finally became primary. So they provided all the animals for the zoo up until the 50s or… Read More
The last building was, three major buildings, last building was built in 1929. So the buildings were not in great shape. The county couldn’t afford to upgrade them and had to decide what to do with the zoo and they couldn’t expand in Washington Park, because so many other activities… Read More
His father-in-law was Ed Bean. (chuckles) And Ed had left Milwaukee after 20 years and became director here at Brookfield, at the Brookfield Zoo and helped build the Brookfield Zoo, which is why many of the exhibits look very much like those in the Milwaukee Zoo. So George and so… Read More
Then left the position and then a new director came in?… Read More
Yes, well, I mean, I knew going into Milwaukee that it was going to be a difficult, they had a very strange organizational structure. The Milwaukee County Zoo started in 1910. Well, no, started in the late 1800s. And when the zoo started, it was part of the City of… Read More
Basically, before then, they had just taken donations when they did the, and mostly birds and small things. And they, Washington Park, boy, Washington Park was annexed to the City of Milwaukee. Boy, it’s complicated, but it was just an old farm, so, they were just taking care of the… Read More
And when you were acting general curator and then general curator, were you able to make changes?… Read More
Did you see, now I can implement some things that I think should be happening, ’cause I’ve been at the place a little while, or from my experience at National Zoo, or was it difficult?… Read More
I don’t, well, I was still responsible for all the scheduling of everybody. Bruce was in charge of all the construction, so they were getting ready to redo the, build the Great Ape House and redo the primate house at the time. I was still just getting my feet wet. Read More
Yeah, I was just in charge of large mammal, of large mammals at the time. I think, I don’t know, but, they hired a curator of primates and small mammals. And I don’t remember where that was before. That must’ve been before I became curator of large mammals, ’cause that… Read More
When you got there, how long after you got there were you acting general curator?… Read More
Within a year. Read More
(Elizabeth sighs) Was it after?… Read More
(Elizabeth chuckles) So as the curator of large mammals, you were in a different position regarding your job?… Read More
May have been after Boese left as director. They reorganized and I became, they abolished the title of general curator and I became the curator of large mammals, which was great, because as general curator, I was, you know, I was, they could fire me, gimme 30 days notice and… Read More