Nature civilized: A cultural history of American zoos, 1870-1940

People have captured, kept, and displayed wild animals for thousands of years, but zoological gardens and parks for the amusement and education of the public are an invention of modern Western culture. This dissertation investigates how the more than 100 zoos built in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century made new meanings for nature through the practices of collecting live animals and displaying them. The new zoos distinguished themselves from earlier menageries, circuses, and traveling exhibits of wild animals by stating their mission as more than recreation; their goals also included the advancement of science, public education, and the preservation of rare species. In defining themselves this way, and by displaying animals in spacious parks, zoos constructed new ways for Americans to encounter wildlife. This study begins around 1870, as the first American zoos were planned. Americans built zoos in a familiar natural landscape, a middle landscape analogous to parks, suburbs, and campuses. Animals got to the zoo through donations from the public, the commercial animal trade, and zoo-sponsored collecting expeditions. The practices behind bringing animals to the zoo shaped both the ecology of the zoo animal population and the meanings of animals there. Finally this account looks at exhibits built to be natural settings. The ways in which early twentieth century zoo directors interpreted this phrase provide insight into the cultural functions of zoo exhibits. This study ends in 1940, the year the National Zoo sent an expedition to Liberia to collect animals, one of the last large-scale zoo-sponsored collecting expeditions. Since World War II, the practices described here have changed significantly