Figure 1.--French illustrator Marcel Marlier provides us this view of children at a French zoo in the early 1960s. The boys wear short shorts. The younger boy knit shorts. The girls all wear dresses.
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Figure 1.--French illustrator Marcel Marlier provides us this view of children at a French zoo in the early 1960s. The boys wear short shorts. The younger boy knit shorts. The girls all wear dresses. |
Virtually every country had some sort of zoo in its capital city ot major cities. Important countries like England, France, Germany, and Italy had major zoos. Most had several zoos located not only in the capital, but major cities as well. The zoos varied greatly in size and diversity of species as well as how well the animals were cared for. There are few important cities, however, that did not have some kind of zoo. Images of the children visiting the zoos provide wonderful views of national fashions as well as changing fashion trends over time. Some country and chronolical trends are easy to identify, other scenes are more generic in character.
A French reader tell us that Marcel Marlier provides an accurate illustration of a zoo in southern France, perhaps Nice or Marseilles. He writes, "This was exactly the how French children dressed in 1960. Younger boys wore short pants and girls short dresses. Notice the boy placed to the left in the yellow shirt. He wears knit shorts. The knit shorts were made very short. This was common for boys 2-5 years old in early 1960s. These short knit shorts largely replaced the rompers that were popular through the 1950s."
Germany before World War I had some of the best zoos in Europe. The best German zoo was the Berlin Zoo, but other major cities like Hamburg had important zoos. I'm less sure about the German zoos after the War. We do know that there were several important zoos after the War. The photographic record provides us many images of children visiting the zoos. Surprisingly we note quite a number of images of children photographed holdiong the animals, including potentially dangerous animals. We have seen quite a number of photographs of boys with lion cubs. The number suggests that this was much more common than in other countries. We wonder if German zoos might have used such photographs as a means of generating additional revenue. During World War II most of the major zoos as they were located in the larger cities were heavily damaged or destroyed by the Allied bombing. I am not sure about the present status of German zoos.
We know very little about Russian zoos. We know that Moscow had a zoo, but we do not know about other cities. Nor do we know much about the quality of Russian zoos. Russian zoos before World war II look similar to western zoos. Of course there are limitatioins maintaining tropical species such as popular african species at cold northern latitudes. The Russians, however, have a lot of interesting speies such as Siberian tigers and snow leopards. Many American and European zoos in recent years have made huge changes in zoo displays, creasting natualistic enclosures as well as done important work in breeding to help preserve endangered species.. We are not sure if Russian zoos have done the same. Financing may be a problem in modern Russia.
A reader reports, "The Zoo in Dushambe is run down. You can be round it in 15 minutes. I think it has 3 horses, 1 camel, lots of moth eaten grey bears, 2 donkeys, and various water fowl. There is ice cream seller. Not surprising there is no money to run the place the entrance fee is 5 cents!"
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