When I began researching the Wildwood Zoological Park that used to exist in the city of Harrisburg, I was skeptical that I would be able to find many, if any, valuable artifacts on the subject. Unfortunately, as I continued my research, I realized that my worries were right; almost all traces of the zoo are absent from the public archives.
When I first heard about Harrisburg’s Wildwood Park and the zoo that used to exist there, I was immediately intrigued by my research. Yet my main question remained: what happened to the animals after the zoo was shut down, not once, but twice? In order to find out the answer to this question, I would have to digitize all of the available artifacts that I could find in both the Pennsylvania State Archives and the Dauphin County Archives. Digital History was a new field to me when I began my Digital History course at Messiah University, but I quickly learned that “This treasure of digital history presents and incredible boon to historians, offering possibilities for online research and teaching that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago” (Cohen and Rosenzweig, Digital History).
During my time in both archives, I gained extensive experience in translating historical materials from an analog or print format to a digital one. In my personal experience, making documents digital means preserving them in a way that keeps them safe, accessible, and readable for research purposes both in and out of the archives. I was able to find a few quality images and documents that mentioned Wildwood Park and the Zoological Park. Much of my digitization consisted of black and white photographs of Wildwood Park and the dump that replaced it in the 1950s. I had better luck at the Dauphin County Archives, where I came across images of the entrance to the zoo and the abandoned bear caves.
Unfortunately, because I was not able to find much information about the Wildwood Zoological Park, what I did find was not particularly groundbreaking. I found myself becoming quite frustrated by the lack of materials surrounding the zoo itself. When I struggled to find anything relating to the Wildwood Zoo, I began to search for information on the Hershey Zoo, now known as ZooAmerica. It was said that the Hershey Zoo took some, but not all, of Wildwood’s animals after their zoo closed. Eventually, I found two folders that were marked as containing images of animals from the Hershey Zoo during the 1950s- one of a bald eagle, and another of a baby elk. When I opened the folders, both were empty. While I was discouraged by my lack of artifacts found, I was happy to be shown a a photograph of Mr. Ken Frew, acting archivist of the Dauphin County Historical Society Archives, standing in the abandoned bear caves as a little boy.
The story that I hope to tell with my research is the story of what happened to the zoo animals of Wildwood, as well as the many rescue horses that were said to be kept there. My plans to transfer my research into a digital format are to scan the images and documents I found with either the Adobe app on my iPhone or the CZUR scanner, and then organize them in my Google Drive until they are ready to use in my project. Our readings for my digital history class discussed main themes of digital history, particularly accessibility and quality. I was very concerned with the quality of my artifacts, as well as making them accessible for others. My hope is that through my project, the history of the Wildwood Zoological Park will be accessible to everyone in a new and interesting way.
I had the ability to work hands-on with documents and research materials at the Dauphin County Archives. (photo by author)
Kylie Smith is a public history major at Messiah, whose research revolves around the importance of animals in history, and how the stories of animals intertwine with human histories.
Digital Harrisburg 