New York Zoological Society. Mammalogy Department

One of the Bronx Zoo's earliest staff members, Raymond L. Ditmars (1876-1942) served as Curator of Reptiles, Curator of Mammals and Reptiles, and Curator of Insects and Reptiles. These records deal primarily with his work in the Department of Herpetology. Included is correspondence with reptile specialists, animal traders, and the interested public. Notable correspondents include Thomas Barbour and Gifford Pinchot.

Collection contains correspondence and subject files kept by Grace Davall, who served first as a secretary at the Bronx Zoo from 1923-1952 and as then the Zoo’s Assistant Curator for Birds and Mammals from 1952-1970. It includes correspondence between Davall and the public and records pertaining to the acquisition and transport of zoo animals, including legal aspects. Also included are records pertaining to the offspring of Dacca, the zoo’s long-lived female tiger.

The collection holds the administrative records of Joseph Anthony Davis, Jr. while he held the position of Scientific Assistant to the General Director. Davis started at the Bronx Zoo in the Mammalogy Department as an Assistant Curator in 1958 and eventually became Curator in 1962. In 1966 Davis moved to a position created for him in the General Director’s Office, Scientific Assistant to the Director (William Conway).