Panda Specimens in Major American Museums, 1919-1941

Item

Title: Panda Specimens in Major American Museums, 1919-1941
Description: Between 1919 and 1941, the three largest American natural history museums acquired 55 specimens of panda skins, skeletons, and skulls from sponsored expeditions and private donations.
Commentary: In a race to acquire rare specimens, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York, the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) in Chicago, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington commissioned or purchased panda specimens of skins, skeletons, skulls, or a combination of all three. American museums acquired 55 specimens before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, most of them before the Guomindang government banned the capture and export of pandas in 1939.

The pie charts associated with this record are based on analysis of the panda specimen holdings of the AMNH, FMNH and AMNH downloaded from these museums’ websites in excel spreadsheets.

Once in American museums, complete specimens with all components could be and were taxidermied and mounted in dioramas or other forms of exhibit. However, only about a quarter of all specimens were complete and suitable for mounting. These included the dead bodies of pandas who had been captured live and kept in American zoos, such as the famous Su-lin at Chicago.

A remarkable 64% (n.35) of these specimens had sojourned at the West China Union University (WCUU) campus in Chengdu, or were obtained by WCUU affiliated missionaries, before making their way to America. Of these 35, 71% (n.26) were obtained by David Crockett Graham on his many natural history collecting expeditions sponsored by the Smithsonian (NMNH).
Location: West China Union University; https://www.geonames.org/12718447/ackerman-clock-tower-huaxi-campus.html
Event Date: 1919-1941
References: AMNH Vertebrate Zoology Collection Database, Ailuropoda melanoleuca (downloaded 2023-09-02); https://emu-prod.amnh.org/db/emuwebamnh/index.php; FMNH “Young boy and girl posing with mounted specimen of Su Lin, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, Brookfield Zoo panda”; https://dams.fieldmuseum.tech/portals/museum-media/#asset/20718; FMNH Zoological Collections, Ailuropoda melanoleuca (downloaded 2023-09-02); https://collections-zoology.fieldmuseum.org/taxonomy/310373; NMNH Mammals Collection - Ailuropoda melanoleuca (downloaded 2023-09-02); https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/search/mammals/?ark=ark:/65665/32e8012e6b6d64c2fa6c3d03da88a3cc9; Panda skull Event icon from Wikimedia Commons; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_Panda_Skull.JPG

Item sets: Event Records in West China Missions Digital Repository; Datasets

Media: Giant_Panda_Skull_edited.jpg

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Items with "Relation: Panda Specimens in Major American Museums, 1919-1941"
Title	Class
Table of Live Pandas, 1936-1953	Dataset

Items with "Is Part Of: Panda Specimens in Major American Museums, 1919-1941"
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Panda Specimens by Components, 1919-1941	Dataset
Panda Specimens in USA Museums, 1919-1941	Dataset
WCUU Affiliated Panda Specimens, 1919-1941	Dataset