Buckles Blog: From Bob Cline #2

Friday, July 20, 2007

Zoo 2, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Anonymous said...: Richard Reynolds says - -

These young African elephants were “Khartoum” and “Sultana.” They were the first of their species at the Bronx zoo. They were captured on the Blue Nile by Capt. S. S. Flower and both arrived at the zoo on June 25, 1907. Sultana died in 1919 but Khartoum grew to titanic size. His last measurement, on December 30, 1930, showed him to be 10 ft – 8½ in. at the shoulder. He died on October 31, 1931.

This same photo (in b&w) appears in **The Bulletin** of the New York Zoological Society, Sep-Oct 1941 as an illustration for William Bridges paper “Twelve Elephants,” the story of the Bronx zoo elephants up to that time. It is worth having.

It should be noted that for its first 41 years (1899 to 1940) the Bronx zoo forbade the taking of photos by visitors. Those caught doing it would be escorted to the zoo gate where their cameras would be held until they left. That was an unwavering policy established by the first director, the dictatorial William Hornaday. If one wanted pictures of the animals, he could buy them from the Society. That brought quite a bit of needed revenue. The prohibition was finally done away with in 1940 by Society President Fairfield Osborn.; 20 July, 2007 14:08

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