New York Zoological Society. Department of Tropical Research. Research Associate. Gloria Hollister Anable papers

Gloria Hollister developed an interest in zoology and conservation at an early age due to working alongside her father at the family farm during her childhood summers. In 1926, she was selected to head an expedition in British Guiana (now Guyana) and Trinidad. In 1928, she applied for and was given the position of research associate with Dr. William Beebe of the Department of Tropical Research [DTR] at the New York Zoological Society [NYZS]. Hollister took part in several expeditions with the DTR: the West Indies Oceanographic Expedition from 1932 until 1933; the Pearl Islands Oceanographic Expedition in 1934; a 1936 expedition to Guyana; and the Bermuda Oceanographic Expedition from 1928 to 1940. During the Bermuda expedition Beebe granted Hollister the chance to make several dives in the Bathysphere, including a 1934 descent to 1,208 feet that set the record for the farthest underwater descent made by a woman; an accomplishment that would stand for thirty years.

In April 1936, Hollister led an expedition to Guyana to study the flora and fauna that grew near the Kaieteur Plateau and Falls, and to collect live animal specimens for the New York Zoological Park (now known as the Bronx Zoo). Hollister’s team discovered several species, including the golden frog and the hoatzin, also called the Canje pheasant. She hired Arthur Williams to take her and the expedition’s cameraman, Arthur Menken, up in his airplane to make an aerial survey and motion picture capture of the surrounding jungle. During this flight, Hollister and Menken recorded 43 waterfalls that had previously been known only to local natives.

In 1939, Hollister was nominated by NYZS for a scholarship sponsored by the Icelandic Zoological Society to study that country’s fish and the fishing industry during the summer of 1940. Unfortunately this expedition was cancelled due to the outbreak of World War II, naval warfare having made travel to neutral Iceland impossible. In 1952 Hollister spearheaded the Mianus Gorge Project, and chaired the Mianus River Gorge Conservation Committee of the Nature Conservancy. She died on February 19, 1988 in Fairfield, Connecticut.