ZOOLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY BULLETIN 



DECENNIAL NUMBER 



A'liiiibcr j?7 



Published by the Xcif York Zoological Society January, igio 



HISTORY OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



By MADISON GRANT 

 Secretary of the Society 



IX the Fall of 1894 important political 

 changes occurred in the City of New York, 

 which gave promise of a new era of mimici- 

 pal improvement. The Boone and Crockett 

 Club, an organization of sportsmen, with 

 Theodore Roosevelt at its head, was at that 

 time actively engaged in game protection and 

 was devoting its energies to the enactment of 

 suitable legislation, and the establishment of 

 game refuges. The Club had played a large 

 part in the foundation and organization of the 

 Yellowstone National Park, and some of the 

 members of the Club thought that the occasion 

 was propitious for the establishment in Xew 

 \ovk of a Zoological Park along new and 

 modern lines. The Zoological Gardens in 

 Europe, and most of those in America, were in 

 the centers of dense population, and were of 

 necessity limited in extent to some thirty or 

 forty acres. They were also dependent for their 

 maintenance, to a large degree, upon admission 

 fees. The new conception of a Zoological 

 Park was radically different, and called for a 

 large area on the outskirts, rather than the 

 center of the city, sufficient in extent to pro- 

 vide natural surroundings for its inhabitants, 

 while not being so vast as to preclude visitors 

 from enjoying the rare spectacle of animals in 

 open ranges. 



A proposal to establish in New York a 

 Zoological Park along these lines was brought 

 to the attention of the Boone and Crockett 

 Club by the writer, and he was immediately 

 ;ippointed chairman of a Committee to secure 

 the necessary legislation, and organize a 

 Zoological Society. The other two members of 

 the Committee were Mr. C. Grant La Farge and 

 Hon. Elihu Root. As soon as the Legislature 

 convened at Albany, the Committee found thai 

 tliere had been introduced a bill which had ap- 

 parently the same objects, as it provided for 

 the establishment of a Zoological Garden on 

 City lands north of 155th Street. The bill had 

 been introduced several years in succession by 

 Mr. Andrew H. Green, who had long been in- 

 terested in the scientific institutions of New- 

 York. The bill had been repeatedly defeated, 

 chiefly on account of a clause it contained au- 

 thorizing the Park Board to turn over to the 

 new Society, the menagerie at Central Park. 

 The proposed removal of the Central Park 

 menagerie, at that time in a most disreputable 

 condition, provoked violent opposition. The 

 Committee called on ^Ir. Green and discussed 

 the matter with him, outlining the views of 

 the Club in regard to a proposed Zoological 

 Park. To all these views ^Ir. Green gave 

 cnrdial acquiescence, and the Committee de- 



