General correspondence, 1970-1976, 1970 - 1976

This series contains Oliver’s correspondence with people outside the New York Zoological Society [NYZS], including New York Aquarium [NYA] visitors, local Coney Island, Brooklyn, and New York City metropolitan area officials and organizations, colleagues from the zoo/aquarium, museum, and conservation fields, and members of the general public with questions about various aquarium-related topics. Additionally, the files include correspondence with former NYZS staff, such as retired former NYA Director Charles M. Breder Jr. The files are arranged alphabetically, with correspondence listed under individuals’ names rather than their organizations’ names. (Married women are listed under their married names even if they retained or were well-known by their maiden names; for example Gloria Hollister Anable is filed under ‘A’.) Notable topics include:

* - The Aquarium’s plans to tear down the neighboring Cyclone roller coaster to build a native dunes/seashore habitat exhibit (the files include correspondence between Oliver and New York City administrators commenting on various details of the evolving proposal, as well as from Cyclone fans who either protested the plan or asked for souvenirs of the coaster if/when it was eventually demolished)

*- Ongoing repairs and renovations at the Aquarium, as well as proposed exhibits, such as one on sea otters, that were as often as not cancelled due to lack of funds

*- Oliver’s involvement with and leadership positions in national and international organizations such as the American Association of Museums, the Bahamas National Trust, BIOSIS [the Biological Sciences Information Service of Biological Abstracts], and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, as well as with New York City groups such as the Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association, the Brooklyn Aquarium Society, and the Cultural Institutions Group

*- The state of the zoo and aquarium field, as seen through Oliver’s correspondents with leading herpetologists, ichthyologists, conservationists, and educators, including William P. Braker, Archie F. Carr, Jr., Roger Conant, Uwe Erich Friese, Clayton Freiheit, Carl Gans, Heini Hediger, Rene Honegger, Murray A. Newman, and so on.

Finally, the correspondence from the fall of 1975 through the winter of 1976 displays a marked increase in interest from the general public and others on the topic sharks, a side-effect of the popularity of the summer 1975 blockbuster movie Jaws>; the files include a couple of letters between Oliver and Jaws’s writer Peter Benchley in which Oliver remarks upon this phenomenon.