Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: A History of Animal Exchanges and Displays in Yellowstone National Park and the Nation's Leading Zoos

导言：这项研究建议在黄石国家公园、国家档案馆、布朗克斯动物园和哈珀斯渡口的国家公园管理局档案馆进行研究。这样做的目的是帮助记录黄石国家公园和领先动物园开展动物交流的历史，以确定黄石公园如何适应全国动物交流网络，并分析公园如何、为什么以及何时建立这些交流。由此产生的论文《动物和文物：黄石国家公园和国家领先动物园的动物交流和展示历史，1872-1929年》将为黄石国家公园内野生动物管理和保护的历史提供一个新的视角，特别是与国家领先动物园有关的历史。通过将这些做法置于保护和人工饲养项目的历史中，它可能会为了解进步时代保护生物学的起源提供新的线索，并有助于更完整地了解美国动物园和自然历史博物馆的历史。学术价值：虽然历史学家专注于野生动物保护和黄石国家公园，但导致黄石公园、国家动物园和全国其他主要动物园之间的“特殊关系”的一项野生动物管理和保护战略尚未得到调查。这种做法导致了非正式的理解和交换机制，即将动物运送到动物园、博物馆和野生动物保护区，在某些情况下，接收动物以换取繁殖和展示。更好地了解国家第一个公园和国家领先的动物园之间的这些交流可能会导致黄石公园作为野生动物保护、圈养繁殖和公共教育的早期中心的新的、更完整的历史。此外，这项研究将有助于更全面地了解公开展示野生动物是如何从皮肤和骨骼过渡到生命的；即从标本展示转变为活动物展示(有时又回来)，用于教育和研究。更广泛的影响：国家公园历史学家和野生动物管理者都受益于更好地了解过去的管理做法，了解它们发生的历史、社会和文化背景。如果研究表明，黄石公园被视为国家和全国领先动物园的伊甸园，这可能有助于科学家和历史学家更好地理解随后的保护政策。如果黄石公园在这段时间里像动物园一样运作，但从长远来看，它顶住了成为动物园的压力，这也可能有助于管理者做出更明智的决定，并应对未来公园野生动物面临的越来越大的压力。这也可能有助于动物园重新考虑自己的历史(以及可能的未来)，因为它们更好地理解了动物园和国家公园在过去建立的关系。正如詹姆斯·普里查德所写的那样，如果我们不能从历史的角度看待我们的公园，我们就无法理解公园的管理，也不能指望开明的公园管理。

Introduction: This proposes to conduct research in archives at Yellowstone National Park, the National Archives, the Bronx Zoo, and the National Park Service Archives in Harpers Ferry. The purpose of doing so is to help document the history of animal exchanges conducted by Yellowstone National Park and leading zoos to determine how Yellowstone fit within a national network of animal exchanges and to analyze how, why, and when the Park established these exchanges. The resulting dissertation, "Animals and Artifacts: A History of Animal Exchanges and Displays in Yellowstone National Park and the Nation's Leading Zoos, 1872-1929," will provide a new perspective on the history of wildlife management and conservation within Yellowstone, particularly as it relates to the nation's leading zoos. By situating these practices within the history of conservation and captive breeding programs, it may shed new light on the origins of conservation biology during the Progressive era, as well as contribute to a more complete history of American zoos and natural history museums. Intellectual Merit: While historians have focused on wildlife conservation and Yellowstone National Park, one wildlife management and conservation strategy, which led to "a special relationship" between Yellowstone, the National Zoo, and other leading zoos around the country, has not been investigated. This practice led to informal understandings and mechanisms of exchange for shipping animals to zoos, museums, and wildlife preserves and, in some instances, for receiving animals in return for breeding and display. A better understanding of these exchanges between the nation's first park and the nation's leading zoological parks could lead to a new and more complete history of Yellowstone's function as an early center of wildlife conservation, captive breeding, and public education. In addition, the research will contribute to a more complete understanding of how public displays of wildlife transitioned from skins and skeletons to life; i.e., from taxidermied displays to living animal displays (and sometimes back again) for education and research. Broader Impacts: National park historians and wildlife managers alike benefit from having a better understanding of past management practices, in the historical, social and cultural context in which they occurred. If research reveals that Yellowstone was viewed as a kind of Eden for the nation and for the nation's leading zoos, that could help scientists and historians better understand the conservation policies that followed. If Yellowstone operated much like a zoo during this period, but resisted pressures to become a zoo in the long term, it may also help managers make more informed decisions and respond to increasing pressure on Park wildlife in the future. It may also help zoos reconsider their own histories (and possible futures) as they better understand the relationships zoos and national parks have forged in the past. As James Pritchard has written, we "cannot understand the management of our parks or hope for enlightened park management if we fail to see our parks in a historical context."