Interview 22877 – Caption Index: 72
So did you have interaction?… Read More
So did you have interaction?… Read More
Who were you interacting with from the senior staff?… Read More
Obviously not the director. Not the director. No, I didn’t. I interacted with the animal supervisor. Sonny Stroman was the supervisor of the large mammal area. So I interacted with Sonny. Read More
He had just been promoted. I think he was, I don’t know whether he’s an assistant curator or a curator. He wasn’t the curator of the area. Larry Collins was the curator of the large mammal area when I was there. Bill, I don’t remember. I can’t remember their titles,… Read More
And who was the director and the deputy?… Read More
deputy director?… Read More
Mm-hmm. Read More
We had an area with kangaroos. We had delicate hoof, which had dorcas gazelles, dik-dik. And then we had muntjac. Then there there’s a large hill, the sable antelope. We had a number of reindeer, because the National Zoo provided reindeer for the Christmas pageant down on the mall, so… Read More
Who was he?… Read More
How would you describe the National Zoo when you first started?… Read More
What else was there?… Read More
Well, the large mammal, when I started in ’74, the large mammals included the Elephant House, which was basically the, was built during, in the 30s during the depression. They had converted an area that was built for rhinos for the giant pandas. I mean, they had, because the presidential… Read More
What kind of animals did that include?… Read More
Basically the zoo was divided. It was large mammals, which was North mammals. And that was basically from the Elephant House to Connecticut Avenue, everything in that section. The bird house was a separate area. Small mammals and primates was an area. And then the Lion House was a another… Read More
What kind of zoo did you find when you first started?… Read More
So the job didn’t state you had to be a man or?… Read More
In large mammals. Yeah, north mammals, north mammal. Read More
No, no. Okay. No, I was not the first woman hired at the National Zoo. I was fifth or sixth. So, but it was, and it wasn’t so much being a woman, that was one thing, but it was just the whole thing of college education. The National Zoo had… Read More
No testing, nothing. I mean, at that point, all the zookeepers, and probably the same when you started, were World War II vets. Most of them had, you know, if they had finished high school, they were considered educated, you know, some of them had difficulty reading and writing. Read More
You have a college degree. You can get a real job.” So yeah, it was different. Read More