Artefact of the month

Penguins on snow, ZSL London Zoo, 1924.

Discover the December 2008 artefact

Fellowship Certificate of Charles Darwin, 1831.

Discover the November 2008 artefact

Photo of Obaysch, by Frederick York, 1870

Discover the October 2008 artefact

Cheetah (Felis jubata), by Joseph Wolf c1852

Discover the September 2008 artefact

Zoo Literature.

Discover the August 2008 artefact

Portrait of Jenny, the first orangutan at London Zoo. Printed by W Clerk, High Holborn, in December 1837.

Discover the June 2008 artefact

Dissertation sur la génération et les transformations des insectes de Surinam... / par Marie Sibille Merian.
La Haye : Cosse, 1726

Discover the May 2008 artefact

Books on the history of ZSL London Zoo

Readers are fascinated with London Zoo, and many books have been written about it in the 180 years since it was opened.

Discover the April 2008 artefact

The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle

These volumes describe the animals encountered as the Beagle voyaged around the world from 1832 to 1836. Soon we will be celebrating 200 years since Darwin’s birth and 150 years since the publication of On the origin of species.

Discover the March 2008 artefact

Whipsnade Zoo Guide, 1965

ZSL Library has many interesting guidebooks for London Zoo and Whipsnade. This is the cover of one of them.

Discover the February 2008 artefact

Catalogue of the Specimens and Drawings of Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Fishes of Nepal and Tibet, presented by B.H. Hodgson, Esq. to the British Museum. Second Edition 1863. (Annotated by Hodgson).

This was Hodgson's personal copy of the Catalogue and is covered with his additions and corrections.

Discover the January 2008 artefact

Detail from Caspian snow partridge, by Joseph Wolf. c1865

The watercolour painting of 'Caspian snow partridge' with goldfinches has been selected as the December artefact for its seasonal, snowy, appeal.

Discover the December 2007 artefact

Guy Fawkes and domestic cat, from the book "All About Animals", 1897

Discover the November 2007 artefact

Common bat, Vespertilio murinus, plate 50 in The natural history of British quadrupeds ... / by E. Donovan

Discover the October 2007 artefact

Oil painting of Guy the gorilla, by William Timym. c1980

William Timym (1902-1990) had been a great admirer of Guy and as well as the sculpture in ZSL London Zoo, a large, stunning, colourful oil painting of Guy can be found hanging in ZSL Library.

Discover the September 2007 artefact

Calliphlox amethystina, the amethyst hummingbird in Volume III of A monograph of the Trochilidae, or family of humming-birds, by John Gould.

Discover the August 2007 artefact

Oil painting of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder and first President of ZSL, by James Lonsdale, 1817.

Discover the July 2007 artefact

The naturalist on the river Amazons

The naturalist on the river Amazons, a record of the adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the equator, during eleven years of travel / by Henry Walter Bates. In two volumes. London : John Murray, 1863

Discover the June 2007 artefact

Postcard of Pipaluk and Sally

Knut the polar bear has been in the news recently, but ZSL London Zoo has also had two famous polar bear cubs: Brumas and Pipaluk.

Discover the May 2007 artefact

Systema Naturae

Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish physician and naturalist, introduced the method of binomial nomenclature using genus and species names on a world scale for animals in 1758 with the publication of Systema Naturae.

Discover the April 2007 artefact

The voyages of Captain Cook

In 1768 James Cook began the first of the three great Pacific voyages which would see him chart the whole ocean, from New Zealand to the Arctic, so accurately that his charts can still be used today.

Discover the March 2007 artefact

Miss Bet

Ernest Griset, who died 100 years ago, was a well-known caricaturist of the nineteenth century. His illustrations in books and satirical magazines including Punch contributed to their popularity and success.

Discover the February 2007 artefact

Record Card for Winnie the Bear.

This London Zoo record card is for Winnie, the bear that inspired A. A. Milne to create Winnie the Pooh.

Discover the January 2007 artefact

The painting of ‘Wapiti in the snow’ has been selected as the December artefact for its seasonal appeal.

Wapiti in the snow. A watercolour, signed by the artist Joseph Wolf, and dated January 1881. c27 x 37 cm. The painting is in a sealed window mount and guarded into an album of watercolours by Wolf. The provenance is not known but it was probably commissioned by the Society.

Discover the December artefact

Comparison of a human and bird skeleton, woodcut, 1555.

It is printed in one of the earliest books in the ZSL Library, L’histoire de la nature des oyseaux, avec leurs descriptions, & naifs portraicts. (The history and nature of birds) par Pierre Belon du Mans published in 1555.

Discover the November artefact

This four-page prospectus was written in March 1825 to encourage people to join the proposed Zoological Society.

It states that the Society would have “a collection of living animals such as never yet existed in ancient or modern times”, a Museum, and a Library.

Discover the October artefact

The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands - by Mark Catesby, 1731-43

Discover the August artefact

Dodo in a Landscape with birds and animals by Roelandt Savery, circa 1629.

Discover the July artefact

Staff Record Card for John Tyrrell (1893-1920).

Discover the June artefact

Brian Houghton Hodgson’s Painting of the Tibetan Antelope, or Chiru, c 1840.

Discover the May artefact

Historia naturalis Ranarum nostratium / Die natürliche Historie der Frösche hiesigen Landes
by August Johann Roesel von Rosenhof, (1753-)1758

Discover the April artefact

Watercolour of an Asian lion by Edward Lear -
Edward Lear may be better known for his nonsense verse and limericks but he began his career as a zoological illustrator.

Discover the March artefact