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Collection Summary | |
Creator: | Richard D. Sparks |
Collection Name: | Richard D. Sparks gorillas papers, |
Inclusive Dates: | 1925-1962 |
Physical Description: | .4 linear feet |
Abstract: | Chiefly correspondence between Richard Sparks and a variety of people, mainly from the 1930s, about the proper treatment of gorillas. Of particular concern is the well-being of three gorillas named Ngagi, Mbongo, and Okere. Sparks advocated for their scientific study in a zoo, instead of their becoming a circus sideshow. |
Collection Number: | MS 093 |
Repository: |
University of Arizona Libraries, Special Collections University of Arizona PO Box 210055 Tucson, AZ 85721-0055 Phone: 520-621-6423 Fax: 520-621-9733 URL: http://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/ |
Richard D. Sparks was a treasurer of Sparks Milling Company, Alton, Illinois, and an animal rights advocate for gorillas.
Chiefly correspondence between Richard Sparks and a variety of people, mainly from the 1930s, about the proper treatment of gorillas. Of particular concern is the well-being of Ngagi, Mbongo, and Okere, captured by author Martin Johnson in the Belgian Congo, in 1931. Sparks advocates for their scientific study in a zoo rather than becoming a circus sideshow. Chief correspondents are: Mary L. Jobe Akeley, naturalist associated with the American Museum of Natural History; Belle J. Benchley, manager of the Zoological Society of San Diego; and Harold C. Bingham, psychobiologist in the study of gorilla behavior. Other correspondence, magazine articles, and black-and-white photographs are concerned with Congo, a gorilla brought from the Belgian Congo in 1925 by author Ben Burbridge, and studied by Yale University researcher Robert M. Yerkes. Miscellaneous material relates to Carl Akeley's animal sculptures, Theodore Spicer-Simson's medallic art, and other gorillas in captivity.
None.
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Richard D. Sparks papers(MS 093). Special Collections, University of Arizona Libraries.
Series I: Correspondence, 1925-1962 | |||||||||||
box | folder | ||||||||||
1 | 1 | Akeley, Carl , 1925-1927 | |||||||||
1 | 2 | Akeley, Mary L. Jobe , 1931-1939 | |||||||||
1 | 3 | Benchley, Belle J. , 1931-1950 | |||||||||
1 | 4 | Bingham, Harold C. , 1931-1932 | |||||||||
1 | 5 | Burbridge, Benjamin , 1931 | |||||||||
1 | 6 | Detwiler, Samuel R. , 1931 | |||||||||
1 | 7 | Johnson, Martin , 1931 | |||||||||
1 | 8 | MacCreagh, Gordon , 1942-1945 | |||||||||
1 | 9 | Merriam, John C. , 1931-1932 | |||||||||
1 | 10 | Spicer-Simson, Theodore , 1947-1962 | |||||||||
1 | 11 | Yerkes, Robert M. , 1931-1950 | |||||||||
1 | 12 | Various , 1931-1935 |
Series II: Photographs, | |||||||||||
box | folder | ||||||||||
1 | 13 | Photographs of Gorillas |
Series III: Magazines and reprints, 1926-1950 | |||||||||||
box | folder | ||||||||||
1 | 14 | Richard D. Sparks, "Congo - A Personality." (Article in Field & Stream) , January 1956 | |||||||||
1 | 15 | Articles, reprints, and clippings about gorillas , 1926-1950 |