THE photographic archive of London Zoo, one of the world’s most important such collections, is to be published for the first time, with the pictures offered for sale to fund conservation, writes Holly Watt.

From tomorrow, the Zoological Society of London will place photographs on its website. These will include elephants walking through docks in Camden, north London, and a tiger cub pictured in 1914 with a disgruntled-looking peccary, a pig-like animal from South America.

In another photograph, two zookeepers trim an elephant’s feet and, from 1920, there is a snapshot of a llama pulling a cart holding a family of three.

In one image, almost 140 years old, a seal is lying sleepily on the lap of a zookeeper, while another from the 1860s shows an orangutan sitting on a stool.

Some of the photographs are unusual. In one, taken in 1914, four zebras draw a cart advertising Mazawattee tea.

The decision to post the pictures online came after images from the archive were blown up on canvases and hung on the walls as part of a refurbishment.

The society said: “We had so many favourable comments about the canvases and guests asking if they could buy one. We realised what a fascinating archive of images we were sitting on. Going through the photos and slides has been a reminder of London Zoo’s astonishing history and the changes it has undergone, which mirror broader changes in understanding of the environment and animal husbandry.”

http://www.zsl.org/printstore

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