INTRODUCTION
 Those
of us who recall the zoo as it was in decades past
have precious memories of those visits, of time spent
strolling and picnicking with our families. Some of
those family members may be gone or grown while the
zoo itself has changed profoundly. There are only
a few places left along the zoo’s pathways where
views remain unchanged from long ago. One reason for
placing the zoo’s history on the web is to allow
those who remember it from days gone by to catch a
glimpse of it the way it was and perhaps recapture
some of those lost moments.
But
it’s not all about nostalgia. The zoo has changed
in many important ways besides appearance. It has
grown into a center for environmental education. Standards
for animal care have risen dramatically. High-tech
biological techniques are used to study wildlife and
combat extinction all over the world. Zoo professionals
now come here from other cities and countries to see
how a zoo should be managed. How has this come to
be? It’s in the zoo’s history -- the evolution
of a private menagerie into the highly respected institution
that Woodland Park Zoo has become at the end of its
first century.
Sources:
The
late Don Sherwood, Parks Dept. architect, wrote
out (by hand) a lengthy and detailed history of all
Seattle’s parks during the 1970s. There are too
many places here in which his work and words are used
to give him specific credit.
Tom
and M.J. Conrow, the zoo’s first archivists,
were volunteers who took piles of news clippings,
decades of Park Board minutes, the Sherwood history,
and many other resources, and organized them into
a proper set of archives. They taped interviews
with retired zoo staff who have since passed away,
thereby preserving memories which would otherwise
have been lost. From all these materials, they fashioned
the first detailed zoo chronology during the late
1980s. It has been updated and edited for presentation
here, but it remains principally the work of the
Conrows.
The
Knudson family loaned photo albums that had
belonged to Gus Knudson, the zoo's first director.
If they had not done so, we would have had very
few images of the early zoo. Carol Beach oversaw
the management of the zoo’s archival photos,
and Kay Schlegel and Phil Rosewater scanned
hundreds of those historical photographs. As a result,
many of those images can be seen here.
The
earliest photographs of Woodland Park Zoo were loaned
by the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI).
Long-time
staff members, especially Curator of Mammals Lee
Werle, helped clarify some points of confusion.
The
majority of materials relating to the final quarter
of the zoo's first century were furnished by staff
throughout the zoo.
Grateful
Acknowledgements:
Frank
Slavens, the zoo's reptile curator, did the
initial conversion of a Woodland Park Zoo history
document to a web page, and provided considerable
advice and encouragement. Rob Viens, former WPZ
webmaster, did final polishing. Public Relations Manager Gigi Allianic and former Special Projects
Coordinator Hillary Gray graciously agreed
to edit text. Any errors that remain, however, are
mine.
Dana
Payne
Editor
If you have comments
or suggestions about this page please send an email to Dana
Payne
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