18th
A01=Richard W. Burkhardt
age
amsterdam
animal
Author_Richard W. Burkhardt
baptiste
behavior
berlin
breeding
cage
captivity
Category=NH
century
cuvier
development
education
enclosure
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eq_history
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eq_isMigrated=2
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
ethology
fauna
french
geoffrey
georges
hilaire
history
jean
lamarck
lion
london
menagerie
monkey
museum
natural
reason
revolution
saint
scientific
species
specimen
taxonomy
tiger
Product details
- ISBN 9780226843971
- Weight: 1247g
- Dimensions: 178 x 254mm
- Publication Date: 02 Apr 2026
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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An authoritative history of the first metropolitan zoo explores how visions for the menagerie collided with the interests of humans and animals alike.
The Paris menagerie at the Paris Museum of Natural History has a special significance in the history of zoos. Founded in 1793–1794 at the height of the French Revolution, it was the model for the other great zoos of the nineteenth century that followed, beginning with London in 1828, Amsterdam in 1838, and Berlin in 1844.
Richard W. Burkhardt Jr. has written the definitive history of the Paris zoo and its early inhabitants, human and nonhuman. The book features narrative or thematic chapters interwoven with chapters focused on particular animals. Combining current scholarship with fresh discoveries gleaned from his immersion in the Paris Zoo’s extensive archive, Burkhardt shares historical treasures that illuminate not only the workings of the menagerie but also various dimensions of the golden age of French zoology (the years of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and Georges Cuvier). His history reconstructs the diverse sources of specimens, the growth of the collection over time, the efforts to make the menagerie scientifically significant, contemporary attitudes toward animals, and the lives of the animals themselves in colonial and diplomatic contexts.
The Paris menagerie at the Paris Museum of Natural History has a special significance in the history of zoos. Founded in 1793–1794 at the height of the French Revolution, it was the model for the other great zoos of the nineteenth century that followed, beginning with London in 1828, Amsterdam in 1838, and Berlin in 1844.
Richard W. Burkhardt Jr. has written the definitive history of the Paris zoo and its early inhabitants, human and nonhuman. The book features narrative or thematic chapters interwoven with chapters focused on particular animals. Combining current scholarship with fresh discoveries gleaned from his immersion in the Paris Zoo’s extensive archive, Burkhardt shares historical treasures that illuminate not only the workings of the menagerie but also various dimensions of the golden age of French zoology (the years of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and Georges Cuvier). His history reconstructs the diverse sources of specimens, the growth of the collection over time, the efforts to make the menagerie scientifically significant, contemporary attitudes toward animals, and the lives of the animals themselves in colonial and diplomatic contexts.
Richard W. Burkhardt Jr. is emeritus professor of history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of The Spirit of System: Lamarck and Evolutionary Biology and Patterns of Behavior: Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and the Founding of Ethology.
