History, Natural History & the Arts
In the 1930s William Beebe (1877–1962), director of the Bermuda Oceanographic Institution sponsored by the New York Zoological Society (now the Wildlife Conservation Society), was described as “the most popular scientist in the world.”
Beebe began his career studying exotic birds, insects, and marine biology. The Brooklyn-born naturalist then gravitated to exploring the Atlantic Ocean’s abyss. [Read more…] about Naturalist & Bathysphere Explorer William Beebe
The source of the Bronx River is now the Kensico Reservoir in Westchester County. From here the river flows south, passing 24 miles through White Plains, Scarsdale, Yonkers, and Bronxville until it reaches Bronx County, where it then empties into the East River, a tidal strait connected to Long Island Sound, between Hunts Point and Clason Point.
The river gets its name from colonial settler Jonas Bronck. The river once originated in an area the Weckquasgeek called Quaropes (White Marshes). [Read more…] about The Bronx River: A Natural History
At the start of the 1880s, Barcelona was an expanding city of about 350,000 people. Its medieval walls had been knocked down only twenty-five years earlier. Capital of the autonomous community of Catalonia, city and region developed into Spain’s economic dynamo. Prosperity mushroomed. A self-confident territory strove to re-establish its identity by invigorating local traditions, culture and language. Barcelona became an engine of change and modernity. [Read more…] about Catalonia in Manhattan: The Architectural Legacy of Rafael Guastavino
Alan Rabinowitz (1953-2018) endured a difficult childhood. Born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrant parents from Eastern Europe, he grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens. By the age of five he had developed such a debilitating stutter that his whole body shook when he tried to speak.
Even though he was a straight A student in school, considered disruptive, he was put in classes with developmentally disabled children and bullied relentlessly. [Read more…] about Alan Rabinowitz: Brooklyn Zoologist & A Voice for Jaguars
Social Darwinism is an ideology that misapplied Charles Darwin’s ideas to the socio-political sphere. The theory proved fruitful to those who advocated the economic principle of laissez faire, and added an element of racial inequality as peoples were classified along an evolutionary scale.
The doctrine can be paraphrased in terms similar to these: “We (white men) belong to a superior race and civilization, be it in economic, military, or moral understanding. This primacy demands from us to direct and civilize the rest of humanity.” [Read more…] about Humans In Zoos: A Long History of ‘Exotic’ People Exhibitions
This week on “The Historians” podcast, the guest is Annette Libeskind Berkovits who worked three decades at the Bronx Zoo in New York City. She helped develop that institution’s worldwide science education programs. Her new book is called Confessions of an Accidental Zoo Curator.
Listen to the podcast here. [Read more…] about Animals in Cages: Zoo History
In Pamela Newkirk’s Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga (Amistad / Harper Collins, 2015) the award-winning journalist reveals a little-known and shameful episode in American history, when an African man was used as a zoo exhibit — a shocking story of racial prejudice, science, and tragedy in the early years of the twentieth century.
Ota Benga, a young Congolese man, was featured as an exhibit at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Two years later, in 1906, the Bronx Zoo displayed him in its Monkey House, caging the slight 103-pound, four-foot eleven-inch man with an orangutan. The attraction became an international sensation, drawing thousands of New Yorkers and commanding headlines from across the nation and Europe. [Read more…] about Spectacle: The Life of Ota Benga
Here’s a quick look at some of the latest New York history resources to hit the web:
The Bronx Zoo is digitizing three dozen scrapbooks of its first director, William Temple Hornaday (from 1896 to 1926). The work is being done with a grant from the Leon Levy Foundation. The zoo director promoted habitat preservation worldwide, and the scrapbooks include letters, postcards, legal briefs, newspaper clippings and pamphlets. His involvement in the infamous Ota Benga scandal in 1906 is not recorded. Hornaday died in 1937. The collection can be found at the Wildlife Conservation Society Library and Archives website. [Read more…] about New Online Collections For New York History
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