A New Deal for our National Zoo: Animal donations from New Deal policymakers and agencies

Above: In 1935, FDR donated a serval to the National Zoo in Washington, DC. The serval (shown above) is a wild cat native to Africa. Years later, it was recalled, "The late President Franklin D. Roosevelt once received a pair of African wild cats [a serval and a caracal] as a present - and put in a hurry call to [Dr. William Mann, Director of the National Zoo] to come and get them" ("'Mr. Noah' Retires From Animal Realm," The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi), January 7, 1957).  Photo by "111 Emergency," provided by Wikipedia, and used here under the CCA-2.0 Generic License.

From 1935 to 1941, several New Deal policymakers, New Deal agencies, and related folks donated animals to the National Zoo in Washington, DC. Here is a list, compiled from the Zoo's annual reports:

1935:

CCC Camp (Grottoes, Va.): 4 pine snakes.

James Farley, Postmaster General and Chair of the Democratic National Committee: 3 horned lizards and a box tortoise.

President Franklin Roosevelt: A serval and a caracal (wild cat species).

Utah State Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA): 3 mountain lions.

1936:

Eleanor Roosevelt: 9 alligators.

1937:

Julius Booker, CCC enrollee or staff person (Belvoir, Virginia): Copperhead snake.

1938:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt: 2 East African hedgehogs.

1939:

Congressman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.): Opossum. (Dingell was an ardent supporter of the New Deal.)

Mrs. E. Gruening: 2 sparrow hawks. (This may be the wife of Ernest Gruening, a New Deal policymaker who served in the Department of the Interior, led the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, was governor of Alaska from 1939 to 1953, and then U.S. Senator from Alaska, from 1959 to 1969. 

1940:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt: 2 ring-necked doves.

U.S. Antarctic Service: Emperor penguin, 13 Adelie penguins, and a crab-eating seal. (The U.S. Antarctic Service was not precisely a New Deal agency, but had several interesting relationships with FDR and the New Deal - see my blog post, "FDR's New Deal for Antarctica, and today's Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution Project.")

1941:

U.S. Antarctic Service: 3 emperor penguins, 4 Gentoo penguins, 2 kelp gulls, and a giant fulmar (a.k.a. giant petrel - a bird species).

Above: These are some of the animals collected and donated by the U.S. Antarctic Service. Photo from the Zoo's fiscal year 1941 report.

When considering these donations, it's interesting to ponder if there are any offspring still existing at the Zoo. For example, are there any offspring from Eleanor Roosevelt's nine alligators? Probably not, but you never know...