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Records relating to ZSL during World War Two.

Papers relating to the financial activities of ZSL

Books filled in daily, listing the arrivals and departures, births and deaths of animals at London Zoo and Whipsnade. Other details mentioned in some of the books are numbers of visitors and money taken, particular visitors, keepers absent, unwell animals, building works, temperatures in the animal houses, weather. Also referred to as 'day books'.

Papers relating to curators and keepers from ZSL's history.

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.

Records relating to the fellowship and membership of ZSL