Le Jardin des Plantes

Le Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris, France, is a small zoo within the larger botanical gardens (Jardin des Plantes) which are part of the Museum of Natural History. Founded with animals from the menagerie of Versailles, which was dismantled in 1795 during the French Revolution, it is the second-oldest zoo in the world. This book, written by botanist and geologist Pierre Boitard, features beautiful etchings of many of the animals found in the zoo and botanical gardens. By 1845, when this second edition was published, Paris had the largest exotic animal collection in Europe. When Zarafa—the first giraffe in France—was brought to the zoo in 1827, a wave of "girafomania" swept the country, and a variety of objects were created in Zarafa's image. The National Zoological Park Library in Washington, D.C., acquired this book in 1918, according to its date stamp. It was recently transferred to the main Natural History Library at the National Museum of Natural History. Please note: The money from this adoption will go to National Zoological Park library for book purchases.