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ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, formerly known as Whipsnade Wild Animal Park, is a zoo and safari park located at Whipsnade, near Dunstable in Bedfordshire, England. It is one of two zoos (the other being ZSL London Zoo in Regent's Park, London) that are owned by the Zoological Society of London. A disastrous fire in Whipsnade's Administration block in 1962 destroyed most of the archives held at Whipsnade (except for the Whipsnade Daily Occurrences). The files listed here were the ones kept in the Offices at Regent's Park, and were therefore not lost in the fire.

Letters and papers relating to the position of Secretary at ZSL. In the past this position was responsible for the overall running of the Zoo(s), but in later years it has become an honorary position. The letters in particular show a breadth of correspondence between the society and people and organisations around the world.

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.