New York Zoological Park. Office of General Curator and General Curator Emeritus. Lee S. Crandall records and papers

Lee Saunders Crandall (1887-1969) displayed an interest in caring for animals—and especially birds—from his childhood days in upstate New York. At his parents' farm in Utica, the young Crandall adopted a menagerie of local wildlife and raised prize-winning poultry under the banner of 'Ladnarc Farm.' In a brief attempt at following in his father's footsteps, Crandall attended Cornell Medical School for a year before changing course and seeking an apprenticeship at the New York Zoological Society's Bronx Zoo.

Crandall thus began his association with the Bronx Zoo in June 1908 as a student keeper in the animal departments. That fall William Beebe, the Zoo's Curator of Birds, hired Crandall on full-time, and promptly brought him along to assist on a collecting trip to British Guiana. As Beebe started devoting more of his time to field research, Crandall's responsibilities at the Zoo increased, and he was promoted to Associate Curator of Birds in 1911 and to Curator of Birds in 1919. Crandall himself went on to lead notable collecting expeditions for the Society, including a 1914 trip to Costa Rica and his famed 1928-1929 journey to Papua New Guinea. This expedition, immortalized in Crandall's 1931 book Paradise Quest, brought dozens of birds of paradise and numerous other specimens to the Bronx Zoo's ornithological collections, and started a life-long friendship between Crandall and his fellow explorer, Australian naturalist John E. “Pop” Ward.

Between 1943 and 1952, Lee Crandall served as General Curator in charge of mammals and birds. In 1952 Crandall was appointed General Curator Emeritus. Despite having retired, Crandall continued to come in to the Zoo daily to answer questions from and provide advice to both NYZS staff and zoologists from farther afield. At the same time, Crandall embarked on what would become his masterpiece, collecting over five decades of first-hand observations of animals at the Bronx Zoo and supplementing these with notes and references from his colleagues in the profession. This first fruit of this work, The Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity (1964; with subsequent editions in 1965 and beyond), was to have been accompanied by a companion volume on Crandall's own specialty, birds. Unfortunately, however, Crandall's final illness interrupted that endeavor.

Nevertheless, Crandall shared the depth and breadth of his knowledge with his colleagues through memberships in several professional organizations. He was a long-time member of the American Ornithologists' Union and the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, served on the Board of the American Committee for Wild Life Protection, and was honored as a Fellow or honorary member of the International Union of Directors of Zoological Gardens, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Aviculture Society, and others. Additionally, Crandall authored over 250 articles and several monographs, among them not only Paradise Quest and The Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity, but also Pets and How to Care for Them (1911, with subsequent editions in 1921 and beyond), Pets: Their History and Care (1917), and A Zoo Man's Notebook (1966, with William Bridges, NYZS's Curator of Publications).

An in-depth biography of Crandall can be found in the memorial piece on him, written by long-time NYZS General Director William Conway, in The Auk.