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Original Charter of ZSL, granted by King George IV, 27 March 1829

Signature of Gatekeeper on duty, numbers of visitors to London Zoo each day, money taken, and catalogues sold.

Regent's Park plans showing the site of London Zoo

It was proposed in the setting up of ZSL that there would be a museum for zoological specimens, and items began being collected c.1827 including a collection of Sumatran specimens donated by Lady Sophia Raffles, widow of ZSL founder Sir Stamford Raffles. The museum was housed firstly within our office building at 33 Bruton Street in central London, and charged entry for people to visit. Many specimens were donated by fellows, John Gould donated his collection of Himalayan birds in 1831 to the museum, for example. The museum proved very popular, and grew at such a rate that it was one of the reasons for moving office to Leicester square. It was decided that the Society either needed to purchase a dedicated building for it - or to disperse the collection. ZSL Council chose the latter, and by 1855 the collection had been dispersed to various other collections including the British Museum (Natural History) and Norwich Museum.

Zoological Society of London Programme of Music to be performed by the band of the Royal Horse Guards

Records relating to the ZSL Davis Lectures

Files relating to the library and its collections at ZSL

Papers relating to ZSL's centenary celebrations including leaflets for a centenary garden party, agenda and menu