COMMTXICATIOX RKGARDING THK NEEDS OF 

 ARTISTS IX THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 



12. i Fifth Ave., N. }'., 18 Jan., 1897. 

 The Secretary of New York Zoologicai. Sociktv. 



Dear Sir: The time seems appropriate for offering suggestions 

 regarding the plans of the buildings to be erected for the Zoological 

 Park, and as an artist I wish to make a few remarks in criticism of the 

 cages, etc., in existing zoological gardens. 



My own experience is limited to the gardens of America, England 

 and France. In each of these the artists have scarcely any better 

 privileges than those accorded to the general public. Zoological gardens 

 are usually intended to assist two classes of students, viz., biological 

 and artistic. The first have simply every privilege they can ask for, 

 or at least that it is possible to give them. Why the artists should be 

 so ignored is a puzzle to me ; and certainly it is not right. 



Let me be more specific. The zoological student has the privilege of 

 a room to himself, where his animal, dead or alive, is placed for him. 

 He usually has access to this room and to the gardens at all times, 

 independently of hours of public admission ; and, lastly, — and this is 

 not such a small matter as it may at first seem, — the keepers are given 

 to understand that it is part of their business to aid him. 



The artist, on the other hand, is, in nearly every zoological garden 

 that I know of, obliged to use the place only when it is open to the 

 public. He has no separate place of study to protect him from the 

 nuisance of the weather, and the still greater nuisance of the public. 

 He is not allowed to arrange his animal or his light, or to interfere in 

 any way, more than the ordinary visitor ; and the keepers only too often 

 are allowed to regard him as an interloper who must keep things pleasant 

 by continual tipping. 



Speaking from my own standpoint — and in this all students as well 

 as the public will, I think, agree — every lion house and every 

 large mammal house that I can call to mind is built with a view to 

 lighting the crowds in the building, not with a view to lighting the 

 animals in the cages. I cannot recall a single good carnivore building 

 that is arranged with skylights in the cages. All are lighted in such a 

 way that the cage is the dark corner of the place. As a matter of fact, 

 it would be more reasonable if the crowd was left in comparative dark- 

 ness, and the whole zone of light kept in and about the cage. 



