The San Diego Zoo: The First Century 1916-2016 Boxed Set

The San Diego Zoo began with a roar, so the legend goes. In 1916, a local doctor named Harry Wegeforth heard a caged menagerie lion's melancholy roar and decided to found a zoo. If there were ever a zoo that has continued roaring into the twenty-first century, it's the world-famous San Diego Zoo.
Created for its 2016 centennial celebration, The San Diego Zoo: The First Century preserves the Zoo's history for posterity in a collector-quality slipcase. So rich is the Zoo's story that telling it requires two volumes: The Founding Era 1916-1953 recounts the remarkable tale of how an abandoned menagerie from the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition grew into a uniquely humane zoo at the hands of a charming rascal everyone called Dr. Harry. It's a saga full of heroes and villains, benefactors and characters, explorations and expeditions, headlines and lawsuits, Hollywood and World War II, plus animal tales and human stunts galore.
The Modern Era 1954-2016 chronicles the brave new era filled with world-changing achievements beyond the founder's wildest dreams. Chain-link fences tumble for bioclimatic design. The Zoo transforms into a twentieth century ark. Endangered species appear at a new Park in the desert. Famed battles to save the giant panda and the California condor begin. And the Zoo embraces the challenges of ending extinction and saving wild habitat, becoming a conservation organization like no other in the world: San Diego Zoo Global. Illustrated with 500+ timeless photos, the history preserved in The San Diego Zoo: The First Century the whimsical, the colorful, the audacious, the heart-tugging, the groundbreaking, and the visionary is destined to be treasured by Zoo lovers for generations to come. Two coffee-table size volumes with dust jackets in slipcase, bound in rich forest green with gold-foil labeling. Protective display box is perfect for gift-giving.