That started under Crowcroft and it was a result of our external parties, architects, indicating that we needed to improve facilities around the zoo and one of the primary ones was obviously the primate house with the great ape collection. And so one of the things that Crowcroft did do… Read More
Can you give me a bit of the evolution of Tropic World?… Read More
Did that start with what director?… Read More
In terms of the relationship of the board of the Chicago Zoological Society and the directors, I’d say there was modest involvement during Crowcroft’s time. I mean, they basically left it to him. They were not engaged except towards the latter part of his time when there was a significant… Read More
And I became involved in terms of teaching, instructing, coaching the docents. So that made a difference in terms of the board involvement. And we also established, in that time, a scientific research advisory committee that handle a little money in terms of awarding grants and things of that sort. Read More
Now what was the relationship between the board at Brookfield Zoo and the directors that were in place as they moved along?… Read More
Speaking of relationships, what was the relationship between Lincoln Park Zoo, the other zoo in Chicago and Brookfield Zoo?… Read More
(George chuckles) As you were moving through the process- Well, the relationship when I first came was really, between Lincoln Park Zoo and Brookfield Zoo, was really a strained one. The board of governors that elects the trustees had an annual meeting at Brookfield in which others were invited, including… Read More
And it just, as I say, the trustees determined that this was unworkable. Read More
What were the goods and bads of that?… Read More
(George chuckling) Well, the person on the, Blakely was on the animal side, responsible for the collections, et cetera. And the other gentleman who occupied that post was responsible for for the public accommodations and the restaurants and so on, and so forth. And there was sort of constant tension… Read More
And he did to a remarkable effect in terms of studying, again, the Peromyscus, the wood and beach mice from mainly the Southeastern United States. And as a result of Bruce’s work, doctoral work, we also acquired Robert Lacy and this led, shortly, to then the first population viability analysis… Read More
Well, one thing of course that Peter brought was interest in the, shall we say, technical scientific sides of the business. And so we, for instance, hired a man with a master’s in nutrition Bruce Brewer to head our commissary, our animal supply division, animal food supply division. And it… Read More
And this… (George chuckles) This relates back to one of the first things that I’d gotten a geneticist out at Argonne to look at, got shortly after I arrived at Brookfield back in the 50s, this man who had been studying twining in humans wondered if there were any records… Read More
What were some of the strengths or weaknesses you learned from people, especially your predecessor, Peter Crowcroft?… Read More
So he had established a little foundation and he became associated with the, he was on the board of trustees of Chicago Zoological Society. So Peter Crowcroft approached Bill Rutherford in terms of perhaps acquiring a bit of territory in Australia for the hairy-nosed wombat. And so that led to… Read More
But in terms of the previous circumstances, as they say, we went from an almost undocumented collection to one that had science as the basic in terms of the records, in terms of the maintenance of the collection and reasonable terms for the future that, and certainly the development of… Read More
Peter Crowcroft, Australian, tap dancing champion of Tasmania, but he done his degree work in England under Elton. And he also was associated for a brief time, British Museum. He went back to Australia, was director of the South Australian Museum in Adelaide, but he continued his studies. He’d done… Read More
Well, with Robert Bean, we had, after I came, the society officially formed a science committee of the board of trustees. And it was usually headed by someone down at the University of Chicago. Emerson first and then some of the chairs of zoology, but also in the biomedical arena. Read More
Even while I was there, Robert was frequently on the road to Europe and visiting the institutions there. So it was a curious, curious circumstance, a sort of paradox in terms of his non-interest in keeping adequate records, et cetera, that one could then analyze. I mean, when the animals… Read More