Although the person who really got it started was its first director, William T. Hornaday who started here in the 1890s and Hornaday, of course, was responsible for the first seal preservation. He led the effort to stop the plume trade and he led the effort to preserve the American… Read More
In 1954, I made my first real visit to the Bronx Zoo, I’d come actually at 1944 with my father to see it. He was coming into New York and I use it as an excuse as a teenager to get up here and look at the zoo. But in… Read More
What kind of person was Fairfield Osborn?… Read More
And now there were some wonderful conflicts, this not necessarily to be recorded between Bridges and Beebe and I didn’t know why. just so you know. And it took me months to discover why. It was about commas. (William laughs) Beebe liked and used a fair number of commas, Bridges… Read More
(William laughs) Well, speaking of that, had you met Fairfield Osborn before applying for work at the zoo and, had you met the other personnel, so when you walked in you weren’t an unknown person?… Read More
I was treated marvelously by the older colleagues and sometimes very instructively. William Bridges, the famous curator publications at the New York Zoological Society as the Wildlife Conservation Society was called in those days, was one of the first people to see me. And he came in, shook my hand… Read More
Lee Crandall was an extraordinary fountain of information. And although the zoo was in poor condition, that could not be laid at their door and it took a while to change and we’re still changing it. The people who have succeeded me are still working to change it and make… Read More
Marvelously?… Read More
That the area around the zoo was not in good condition. The Bronx had become one of the poorest areas of that size in all the United States. So I saw that there were a great many challenges beyond the immediate needs of the zoo. The bird collection in St. Read More
How were you treated by the older colleagues to this young man who was coming in through the door?… Read More
And I presume it was the Bronx Zoo that you were walking through the doors. Read More
What was your first impression?… Read More
Well, my first impression was a little rough. I drove 16 hours from St. Louis to New York. The weather was miserable. I came over the George Washington Bridge, which had only one level at that time, and the first thing I managed to do was to get myself welcomed… Read More
Well, I became interested in ornithology I suppose, because birds are so remarkably diverse, so active, and my original interest in reptiles is still very strong but if you’re a herpetologist and I suppose I was better qualified as a herpetologist than anything else when I became interested in ornithology,… Read More
You walk in the front door, what were your impressions of this new place?… Read More
When I decided I wanted to go to New York because of people like Lee Crandall and Leonard Goss, the veterinarian there, and especially William Beebe, I would do virtually anything to get there. A mammal position became available, so I applied for it. And fortunately, or perhaps fortunately I… Read More
What kind of pushed you so to speak toward ornithology?… Read More
And is it true that your first looked at a position at the department of mammalogy before you went to ornithology?… Read More
So you were about– You found Cheyenne Mountain to be a different zoo than St. Louis?… Read More
Very different Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is very different from St. Louis and a very interesting zoo, it’s built on the side of Cheyenne Mountain and it’s a beautiful environment. And they had certain opportunities there that I suppose other zoos wouldn’t have, and they had various limitations because of the… Read More