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American Black Bear, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Unidentified monkey in cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Unidentified monkeys, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Male and female unidentified monkeys sitting in wood enclosure, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) in cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) in cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Visitors looking at Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) walking along the floor of his cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Zookeeper smoking his pipe while feeding two bears who are standing upright, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Zookeeper smokes his pipe while feeding bears, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Cougar sitting on a ledge in a cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Cougar in a cage, two men looking in from outside, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Cougar in a cage with bars, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Cougar in a cage with several men and women looking at it through the bars, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Male lion, in a cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Lions, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Leopard in cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Tiger in cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Tiger in cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Tiger, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Zebra (probably Grant's), in outdoor fenced enclosure, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Emu, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Zebra and emu in adjoining cages, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Zebra [Grant's?], Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Zebra [Grant's?]. A gentleman visits a zebra, which is in a caged area, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Zebra. A gentleman visits a zebra, which is ina caged area, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Camel. Hand of unidentified man pointing at camel emerging from a parted curtain, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Nilgai in outdoor fenced enclosure, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Kangaroo, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Wolf in cage, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Wolf in a cage with bars, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Wolf in stone walled enclosure, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Llama in outdoor fenced enclosure, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Deer in pool of water in their enclosure, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Yak, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
American Bison, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Elephant in enclosure with roof and chain on its leg. Garden, benches, conservatory building and smoke stack in background, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Seals or sea lions, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Wolf in a cage with bars, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Wolf in stone walled enclosure, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Llama in outdoor fenced enclosure, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Deer in pool of water in their enclosure, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Yak, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
American Bison, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Elephant in enclosure with roof and chain on its leg. Garden, benches, conservatory building and smoke stack in background, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Seals or sea lions, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Egyptian Goose, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Parrot, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
White Pelican, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Black Swan, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Cranes, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Ostrich, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Pheasant, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Collared Peccaries, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
Rabbits, Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago: photographer unknown, 1900 (The Field Museum Library)
7 comments:
Another slice of hazy traumatic childhood memory, the zoo.
You'll have noticed the congenial pipesmoking zookeeper in the seventh shot here, at the turn of that other, long-ago century, is carrying a baseball bat under his arm as he hand-feeds the bears.
Let's play two.
The photographer is unknown, as stated. It's thought maybe these were meant as studies for a diorama.
Quien sabe. But if taking the life out of animals and leaving only the pathos of their loss be taken as the objective, then the zoo, even remembered over the yawning moat of these too many awful human decades later, is probably almost as good as a diorama, just a lot sadder and stinkier.
The pictures and the way they're assembled tell the story remarkably well. Not a wonderful thing to view in the middle of a long desolate night, but still I'm glad I've seen them all. (Wow -- the rabbits!) I received an email yesterday from a neighbor in New York State with a color snapshot attached (not an artful photo, but no matter) showing an untroubled adolescent black bear in her back yard. That was very nice to see and brought back some great memories. The name "Tuxedo" in NY is apparently derived from the Lenape word meaning "of or having to do with bears," which would make sense because there are so many of them there. But it's difficult to get a straight and consistent story on the subject. Curtis
the following was presented as an actual news report:
'Depressed' Ferret Flees Siberian Circus
15 July 2011
The Moscow Times
A ferret has escaped a circus in the East Siberian city of Chita along with a monkey and a red-breasted parakeet — apparently because they all were feeling down due to bad weather.
"We believe the creatures have fled because of their depression — the rain in Chita just doesn't stop," the circus' art director, Zhanna Lazerson, told Interfax on Thursday.
"We found the monkey in a doghouse in the morning, and the two animals were cuddling in their sleep," she said. "But the search for the ferret and the parakeet goes on."
She said the escape has added to the animals' depression in the circus because the male parakeet was partnered on stage with a female parakeet who is now missing him.
The ferret is less missed, with Lazerson calling him a "terrible glutton, idle to the core."
Nevertheless, the troupe hopes that the animals will return to their circus home once they get really hungry.
Weather forecasts say the rain won't let up in Chita this week.
Some photos manage to depict an ember of life defiantly unsnuffed by time or space. Others, that ember's dying wane. I first viewed these last night before escaping the cage of my day, returning to them (& it) this morning, and quite unsure now I ever actually left.
Tom,
Something about the black and white making these poor caged creatures look even more desolate -- photonoir, zoo keeper with pipe and dancing bears.
The casual and systematic reduction of other species to a state of abjection for the sake of entertainment does not recommend homo sapiens very highly. And yes, as Steve notes, seeing the passive suffering in black and white -- zoo noir -- does indeed enhance the feeling of terrible bleakness in these scenes.
Chris Marker: Zoo Piece, from Little Bestiary, 1960
This time of year (school's out), the two big zoos in the Chicago area, where I grew up in the middle of the last century, were full of dumb little kids like me who would forever associate wild animals with the stunned objects of derision trapped in the fetid cages and enclosures which we see in these images.
One feels for the zebra and emu, far from any conceivable habitat, communing together through the bars; for the polar bear, forlorn spectacle in this humid prison; for the cougar on the wooden platform, mocked from a safe distance; for the forlorn elephant, chained by one foot with a good view of the smokestack; for the recalcitrant camel, getting a good scolding for refusing to come out and act nice for the photo shoot; and for those miserable rabbits, whose lives, such as they might have been, were passed in these endarkened circumstances, somewhere beneath and beyond all memory of what freedom might have been like.
The Lincoln Park Zoo was a very popular photographic venue in the epoch pictured here. Postcard views were vended round the world.
Bear Pit, Lincoln Park Zoo, c. 1897-1901, photochrome by Detroit Photo Company
The feathers set against the filthy concrete and wire mesh.
These infantile proprietary instincts; beauty's to be boxed up and made manageable.
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