Interview 22877 – Caption Index: 64
What else was there?… Read More
What else was there?… 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
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
In large mammals. Yeah, north mammals, north mammal. 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
And it was all these young kids who were suddenly interested in wildlife getting jobs at the zoo and they just didn’t, they just went, you know, “What are you doing here?… Read More
You have a college degree. You can get a real job.” So yeah, it was different. Read More
So you learned about the opportunity through friends to get on the list?… Read More
Get on the list, exactly. Read More
Okay, and there was no testing or?… Read More
What was your… Oh, let’s see. I graduated from college in December of ’72. I got married in ’73 and I started at the National Zoo in February of ’74. I had my first interview with Miles Roberts. And I was looking for a job in large mammals, ’cause I… Read More
As an animal keeper?… Read More
As an animal keeper. So your first job at the National Zoo was- Animal keeper. Animal keeper, $3 and 25 cents an hour. Read More
There’s no tests?… Read More
Not for laborers and dishwashers, there wasn’t any tests. You just filled out the form and you got on the list and they sent, when the zoo was looking for zookeepers, they would get a list from the federal government. And your name was on the list. Read More
So when did you start then, what year did you start?… Read More
And when you were, did you go on beyond your bachelor’s?… Read More