The Leopard in the Garden
Animal and Human Lives in Paris at the First Public Zoo of the Modern Era
9780226843971
9780226843988
The Leopard in the Garden
Animal and Human Lives in Paris at the First Public Zoo of the Modern Era
An authoritative history of the first metropolitan zoo explores how visions for the menagerie collided with the interests of humans and animals alike.
The Paris menagerie at the Paris Museum of Natural History has a special significance in the history of zoos. Founded in 1793–1794 at the height of the French Revolution, it was the model for the other great zoos of the nineteenth century that followed, beginning with London in 1827, Amsterdam in 1838, and Berlin in 1844.
Richard W. Burkhardt Jr. has written the definitive history of the Paris zoo and its early inhabitants, human and nonhuman. The book features narrative or thematic chapters interwoven with chapters focused on particular animals. Combining current scholarship with fresh discoveries gleaned from his immersion in the Paris Zoo’s extensive archive, Burkhardt shares historical treasures that illuminate not only the workings of the menagerie but also various dimensions of the golden age of French zoology (the years of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and Georges Cuvier). His history reconstructs the diverse sources of specimens, the growth of the collection over time, the efforts to make the menagerie scientifically significant, contemporary attitudes toward animals, and the lives of the animals themselves in colonial and diplomatic contexts.
The Paris menagerie at the Paris Museum of Natural History has a special significance in the history of zoos. Founded in 1793–1794 at the height of the French Revolution, it was the model for the other great zoos of the nineteenth century that followed, beginning with London in 1827, Amsterdam in 1838, and Berlin in 1844.
Richard W. Burkhardt Jr. has written the definitive history of the Paris zoo and its early inhabitants, human and nonhuman. The book features narrative or thematic chapters interwoven with chapters focused on particular animals. Combining current scholarship with fresh discoveries gleaned from his immersion in the Paris Zoo’s extensive archive, Burkhardt shares historical treasures that illuminate not only the workings of the menagerie but also various dimensions of the golden age of French zoology (the years of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and Georges Cuvier). His history reconstructs the diverse sources of specimens, the growth of the collection over time, the efforts to make the menagerie scientifically significant, contemporary attitudes toward animals, and the lives of the animals themselves in colonial and diplomatic contexts.
Table of Contents
Part 1 The Revolutionary Menagerie: Creating the Modern Zoo in Paris (1793–1815)
1 Imagining and Establishing the New Menagerie
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The Leopard in the Garden
1.2 Imagining the New Menagerie
1.3 The Revolutionary Museum and the Menagerie (1793–1795)
1.4 The Lion, the Dog, and the Librarian
1.5 The Lemur in the Laboratory
1.6 Between Glory and Ruin
1.7 The Bears from Greenland and the Bears from Bern
1.8 Theory and Practice (1795–1801)
1.9 The Concert for the Elephants
1.10 The Keepers
1.11 Lions, Cubs, and Their Keeper
1.12 Buying from the Enemy
1.13 The Tiger
1.14 The New Menagerie Takes Shape
2 Life in Motion
2.1 Naturalists’ Practices and the Menagerie in the Golden Age of French Zoology
2.2 The Sacred Ibis
2.3 Guiding the Public
2.4 Firing Félix Cassal
2.5 The New Superintendent
2.6 Kindness in Context
2.7 The Empress, the Kangaroos, and the Black Swans
2.8 Collecting for the Menagerie Before 1815
2.9 The Gnu
2.10 Caring for the Animals of the Menagerie
2.11 Martin the Bear
2.12 The Seal
2.13 Prussians at the Gates
Part 2. Colonial Ambitions, Star Attractions, and the Quest for a Science of Living Animals: The Menagerie in Its Prime (1815–1838)
3 The Menagerie in the Wider World
3.1 Captain Milius’s Green Monkey
3.2 Colonial Ambitions and the School for Voyager Naturalists
3.3 The Egyptian Mongoose and the Brown Rat
3.4 The New Collectors: Jacques Milbert and J.-J. Dussumier
3.5 The Bison
3.6 Donors, Dealers, Showmen, and the Growth of the Menagerie
3.7 Tapirs and Travelers
3.8 The Demands of Diplomacy
3.9 The Giraffe from the Pasha
3.10 The Lions of Algeria
4 Family Ties and a Science of Living Animals
4.1 Family Ties
4.2 The Animal Closest to Humans
4.3 Toward a Science of Living Animals
4.4 The Beaver
4.5 Acclimatization and Domestication
4.6 The Species Question
4.7 Dogs, Wolves, and Jackals
4.8 The Keepers Revisited
4.9 The Electric Eel
4.10 Jack the Orangutan
4.11 The Old Professor and the New
4.12 The Chimpanzee and the “Palace of the Monkeys”
4.13 Quarreling over the Bones
4.14 Conclusion
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
1 Imagining and Establishing the New Menagerie
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The Leopard in the Garden
1.2 Imagining the New Menagerie
1.3 The Revolutionary Museum and the Menagerie (1793–1795)
1.4 The Lion, the Dog, and the Librarian
1.5 The Lemur in the Laboratory
1.6 Between Glory and Ruin
1.7 The Bears from Greenland and the Bears from Bern
1.8 Theory and Practice (1795–1801)
1.9 The Concert for the Elephants
1.10 The Keepers
1.11 Lions, Cubs, and Their Keeper
1.12 Buying from the Enemy
1.13 The Tiger
1.14 The New Menagerie Takes Shape
2 Life in Motion
2.1 Naturalists’ Practices and the Menagerie in the Golden Age of French Zoology
2.2 The Sacred Ibis
2.3 Guiding the Public
2.4 Firing Félix Cassal
2.5 The New Superintendent
2.6 Kindness in Context
2.7 The Empress, the Kangaroos, and the Black Swans
2.8 Collecting for the Menagerie Before 1815
2.9 The Gnu
2.10 Caring for the Animals of the Menagerie
2.11 Martin the Bear
2.12 The Seal
2.13 Prussians at the Gates
Part 2. Colonial Ambitions, Star Attractions, and the Quest for a Science of Living Animals: The Menagerie in Its Prime (1815–1838)
3 The Menagerie in the Wider World
3.1 Captain Milius’s Green Monkey
3.2 Colonial Ambitions and the School for Voyager Naturalists
3.3 The Egyptian Mongoose and the Brown Rat
3.4 The New Collectors: Jacques Milbert and J.-J. Dussumier
3.5 The Bison
3.6 Donors, Dealers, Showmen, and the Growth of the Menagerie
3.7 Tapirs and Travelers
3.8 The Demands of Diplomacy
3.9 The Giraffe from the Pasha
3.10 The Lions of Algeria
4 Family Ties and a Science of Living Animals
4.1 Family Ties
4.2 The Animal Closest to Humans
4.3 Toward a Science of Living Animals
4.4 The Beaver
4.5 Acclimatization and Domestication
4.6 The Species Question
4.7 Dogs, Wolves, and Jackals
4.8 The Keepers Revisited
4.9 The Electric Eel
4.10 Jack the Orangutan
4.11 The Old Professor and the New
4.12 The Chimpanzee and the “Palace of the Monkeys”
4.13 Quarreling over the Bones
4.14 Conclusion
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index