Lincoln Park Zoo Sea Lion Exhibit, 1889. Chicago History Museum, ICH-19476.
During our recent visit to Lincoln Park Zoo, my grandnephew Cooper and I rode the Endangered Species Carousel. Photo by Wendy Littlefield.
Simon and Garfunkel, please forgive me, but to me, your song is about the Lincoln Park Zoo. I realize that you both grew up in New York and that you are literally referring to the Central Park Zoo. But for me, your lyrical song has always conjured images of the Lincoln Park Zoo. One of Chicago’s most iconic and beloved public spaces, the Lincoln Park Zoo and its history are highlights of the “Swamps to Parks” exhibition at Harold Washington Library. Johanna Russ of the Chicago Public Library and I co-curated the exhibit, and together we will be giving Gallery Tours and Talks on Thursday, August 12, 2021. The programs are free and open to the public, and you can pick from three different time slots: 2-2:30 pm, 2:45-3:15 pm, or 3:30-4:00 pm. The Chicago Public Library has enacted social distancing measures. Registration is required, and I hope you can attend.
“From Swamps to Parks Building Chicago’s Public Spaces,” is on display in the Harold Washington Library’s 9th floor exhibit hall. Courtesy of Chicago Public Library.
Among the first public zoos in the country, Lincoln Park Zoo is located in one of the city’s oldest greenspaces. The site was first set aside for use as a cemetery in 1837, the year that Chicago was incorporated as a city. After physician Dr. John H. Rauch and other park advocates argued that the lakefront burial ground posed a public health threat to the city’s growing population, the Common Council agreed to designate 60 acres of unburied cemetery land as a park in 1860. The site received little attention until 1865, when city leaders renamed the park in honor of Abraham Lincoln soon after the assassination of the revered president. Chicago’s Common Council then set aside $10,000 for Lincoln Park’s improvement, and Swain Nelson (1828-1917), a Swedish immigrant landscape gardener, was soon selected to create the original plan for the park.
Original Plan for Lincoln Park by Swain Nelson, 1865. Chicago History Museum.
Swans on the Lake, Central Park, New York, ca. 1865. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
As the centerpiece for his 60-acre park, Nelson designed a sinuous artificial lake that would be crossed by rustic bridges. He surrounded the water feature with lawns, scattered trees, and winding drives. Nelson hired his cousin Olof Benson (1836–1909) to assist him, and the two were soon contracted to begin the construction of Lincoln Park. Their work was not yet fully completed when Lincoln Park hosted is first free outdoor concert. On August 2, 1868, the Chicago Tribune reported that, along with enjoying the music, “thousands of well-dressed people” appreciated the new park’s “delicious verdure.”
Just a few weeks later, on August 27, 1868, Oliver B. Green presented Lincoln Park with the gift of four mute swans from Central Park. A prominent local civil engineer, he was the brother of Andrew H. Green, a New York lawyer and Central Park’s comptroller. Along with the two pairs of swans, Central Park’s administrators included a letter providing instructions for their care. In presenting the birds to Chicago’s Board of Public Works, Oliver Green said he hoped they would contribute to the “daily-increasing beauties, which our park, under the wise management of your board, is receiving.” Soon placed on Lincoln Park’s waterway, the small collection of birds marked the beginnings of the Lincoln Park Zoo.
Cooper pointing out the flamingos and other birds on a remnant portion of Swain Nelson’s original pond. Photo by Julia Bachrach.
“King of Lincoln Park Herd of Buffalo,” vintage postcard, ca. 1900.
Other Chicagoans quickly followed Oliver Green’s lead by offering to donate additional animals to Lincoln Park. In 1869, Jacob Rehm, Superintendent of the Chicago Police and a member of the newly-established Lincoln Park Board of Commissioners, gave an alligator from the Gulf of Mexico. As zoos were still quite a novelty, Mr. Rehm’s gift received national attention. According to the Daily Evening Express (a Lancaster, Pennsylvania newspaper), the creation of a pond was underway “to be made expressly for the gentle creature to gambol in.” That August, several East Coast papers reported that by then Lincoln Park’s menagerie also included a pair of buffaloes and a wildcat.
The donations continued and, by 1873, the Lincoln Park Zoo collections included prairie dogs, foxes, wolves, rabbits, Guinea pigs, two squirrels, and a bear. By this time, the growing zoo also had 13 swans, numerous ducks, wild geese, and peacocks, as well as several eagles, a pair of turtle doves, and an owl.
This stretch of Old Lake Shore Drive aligns with Cannon Drive and is now part of the Lincoln Park Zoo parking lot, ca. 1890. Chicago Park District Records: Photographs, Special Collections, Chicago Public Library.
Contract between Nelson & Benson and Lincoln Park Commissioners, August 1, 1873.
In the early 1870s, Nelson and Benson produced expansion plans for Lincoln Park that included the removal of the old cemetery and the creation of the first portion of Lake Shore Drive. They were also commission to build the drive and implement other park improvements. In August of 1873, the Lincoln Park Commissioners entered into a $5,000 contract with the landscape gardeners to “keep and maintain in good order the improved” part of the park including Lake Shore Drive, and “to make all proper repairs to the same… and further to feed and care for the animals and fowls at the Park.”
The Lincoln Park Zoo acquired its first animal that had not been donated when, in 1874, it purchased a bear cub for $10. By the late 1870s, the wooden bear cage had become inadequate and new bear pits were under construction. Apparently, the bears at Lincoln Park Zoo were terrific climbers. According to the 1899 History of Lincoln Park by I.J. Bryan,the bears became experts at climbing out of their dens, and making “an almost nightly practice to escape and roam around the park.” In 1880, a grizzly wandered down Pine Street Drive (now Michigan Avenue) “and took refuge from pursuers in a tall elm tree near Oak Street.” As a result of the various bear escapes, the Lincoln Park Commissioners fastened curved iron bars to the top of their dens.
Bear in Tree, ca. 1900. Chicago Public Library Special Collections, Chicago Park District Archives, Photograph 067_011_007.
In 1888, when the circus was in town, the commissioners asked James A. Bailey if he’d consider donating an elephant to the Lincoln Park Zoo. He and his partner, P.T. Barnum agreed to sell the commissioners an eight-year-old elephant called “The Dutch.” By the end of the deal, Lincoln Park Zoo had acquired the elephant as well as eight other animals, including a Bengal tiger and two leopards. They quickly changed the elephant’s name to Duchess.
Cy De Vry offering Duchess a drink of water, ca. 1900. Chicago History Museum, DN-000782.
“Canopy for Elephant,”1898.Chicago Public Library Special Collections, Chicago Park District Archives, Drawing 3189.
The same year that they bought Duchess, the commissioners hired Cyrus De Vry (1859-1934) as the first director of the Lincoln Park Zoo. As explained by the book Ark in the Park, in 1891, when zookeepers were in the midst of moving Duchess from her winter quarters to her summer shelter, she took off. De Vry grabbed her by the trunk to stop her, soon finding himself on “an unexpected ride.” She ended up smashing her way into a saloon on North Avenue. Someone’s horse was killed in the tussle and a lot of property was destroyed, but Duchess and De Vry made it back safely to the zoo.
I pointed out the ornamental bird perched on the cornice above the Bird House entrance to Cooper. Photo by Wendy Littlefield.
Following De Vry’s direction, the Lincoln Park Commission began purchasing additional animals and erecting new buildings to house and exhibit them. The oldest existing animal structure is the 1904 Bird House. Designed by architect Jarvis Hunt with input from De Vry, the building originally housed birds and small mammals.
Left: Cover of price list from Carl Hagenbeck, German animal trainer and dealer, ca. 1900. Right: Completed order from Lincoln Park Zoo, ca. 1900.
Another extant zoo building that is still being used for its original purpose is the 1912 Lion House which is currently under renovations. Architects Perkins, Fellows & Hamilton produced this magnificent building which has distinctive exterior brick and tilework and a vaulted Guastavino-tile ceiling in the interior. Dwight H. Perkins wrote, “Experience has shown that the animals must have south sun to as large a degree as possible and for this reason, and to avoid confusion in handling the great crowds…, the exhibits are placed only on one side of the great interior hall.”
Lion House, ca. 1912. Barnum & Barnum, photographers. Chicago History Museum.
Cooper and me in front of the old aquarium, now the Park Place Café. Photo by Wendy Littlefield.
Some structures that were built to house and exhibit animals have been adapted to other uses over time. For example, the Park Place Café was the city’s first aquarium when it opened in 1923. Architect Edwin Hill Clark embellished the structure with related decorative elements including fish, turtles, and frogs. Lincoln Park Zoo’s Aquarium and Fish Hatchery was the largest fresh water aquarium in the world when it first opened. The exhibit began losing its popularity, however, when the much larger Shedd Aquarium opened its doors in 1930. Lincoln Park’s aquarium was then converted into a reptile house, and then later into a restaurant.
Although the Lincoln Park Zoo and its collections and exhibitry have changed continually over the years, there is something so timeless about the place. Perhaps it’s the zoo’s intimate scale or the way it is nestled into the park. To learn more about the history of Lincoln Park Zoo, I highly recommend the book Ark in the Park by Mark Rosenthal, Carol Tauber, and Edward Uhlir. You may also want to check out a new initiative to document the history of America’s Zoos and Aquariums and the pioneers who created them.
