Letters from Edward Pierson Ramsay, Curator of the Australian Museum, to Philip Lutley Sclater regarding the transportation of a ceratodus to the Zoological Society of London

Correspondence between the British Museum (Natural History) and Sheffield Airey Neave regarding delegates to the Conference on Nature Preservation in Post-War Reconstruction, and a meeting of the Council

Correspondence between United States Lines and Geoffrey Marr Vevers regarding the transport of animals and museum specimens to Philadelphia on the Russell R. Jones

Letter from Gavin de Beer of the British Museum (Natural History) regarding Desmond Morris and Congo

Letter to Dr F C Fraser of the British Museum (Natural History) regarding his name being put forward as the Society's representative on the National Committee of Biology

Letter regarding notes on various lizards and a West African Echis

Lists specimens sent to the Natural History Museum

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.

Includes: Report on the value of the Reserved Collection, 1851; Dr Crisp. Museum Stores; List of Animals Presented to the Norwich Collection; Catalogue of specimens of cruise, 1849; etc. Also includes printed extracts from the Annual Reports regarding the Museum, and a printed petition to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to buy the collection. The Dr Crisp item is a list of articles purchased by him from the Museum, including the skin of a giraffe.