3. Notable Donors Contributed to the Central Park Zoo’s Founding

Between the 1860s to 1890s, animal donations for what would later become the Central Park Zoo came from a number of sources, ranging from a 10-year-old boy to powerful men like the secretary of state for Abraham Lincoln, inventor Samuel Morse, financier August Belmont, General Sherman (who donated African Cape buffalo) and General Custer (who donated a rattlesnake), among others.