Artefact of the month - April 2008

Readers are fascinated with London Zoo, and many books have been written about it in the 180 years since it was opened.

The books range from the scholarly to the very popular. Some are informal in tone - chatty even. Often they reflect the values of the time when they were written.

The book "Zoo" by the poet Louis MacNeice is particularly evocative of London Zoo in the 1930s.

All of these books may be consulted in the Library of the Zoological Society of London.

History of ZSL

Chalmers Mitchell, Peter: Centenary History of the Zoological Society of London
(ZSL, London: 1929).

Scherren, Henry: The Zoological Society of London (Cassel, London: 1905).

Zuckerman, Solly (ed.): The Zoological Society of London 1826-1976 and Beyond: Symposia of the ZSL, No. 40 (ZSL, London: 1976).

History of London Zoo

Åkerberg, Sofia: Knowledge and Pleasure at Regent’s Park: The Gardens of the Zoological Society of London during the Nineteenth Century (Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden: 2001)

Barrington-Johnson, J: The Zoo - The Story of London Zoo (Robert Hale, London:2005).

Blunt, Wilfred: The Ark in the Park, the Zoo in the Nineteenth Century
(Hamilton, London: 1976).

Edwards, John: London Zoo from Old Photographs, 1852-1914 (London: 1996).

Guillery, Peter: The Buildings of London Zoo (Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, London: 1993).

Vevers, Gwynne: London's Zoo (Bodley Head, London: 1976).

ZSL: Golden Days, Historic Photographs of London Zoo
(Duckworth, London: 1976).

History of Whipsnade

Huxley, Elspeth: Whipsnade (Collins, London: 1981).

Pendar, Lucy: Whipsnade Wild Animal Park, ‘My Africa’ (The Book Castle, Dunstable: 1991).

Other works of interest:

Bartlett, AD; compiled and edited by Bartlett, Edward: Bartlett’s Life among Wild Beasts in the Zoo (Chapman & Hall, London: 1900)

Bartlett, AD; compiled and edited by Bartlett, Edward: Wild Animals in Captivity (Chapman & Hall, London: 1899)

Boulenger, EG: Animal Ways (Ward, Lock & Co, London: 1931)

Boulenger, EG: Animals in the Wild and Captivity (Ward, Lock & Co, London: 1930)

Boulenger, EG: A Naturalist at the Zoo (Duckworth, London: 1926)

Boulenger, EG: The Zoo and Aquarium Book (Duckworth, London: 1932)

Boulenger, EG: Zoo Cavalcade (Dent, London: 1933)

MacNeice, Louis: Zoo (Michael Joseph Ltd.,London: 1938)

Murray, Callum (ed.): The World of London Zoo (NTS, London: 1993)

If you visit ZSL Library, do look at these books.