Even while traveling I learn new tidbits about our city, Chicago.
Earlier this year my son and I visited the Smithsonian National Zoo’s giant panda habitat — which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. It is one of three zoos in the United States that have pandas — the Memphis Zoo and Atlanta Zoo are the others. (The San Diego Zoo had pandas for more than 23 years before returning its two to China in 2019.)
While at the National Zoo I discovered the Brookfield Zoo was the very first American zoo to care for the very first live panda brought here from China — and the story is really incredible.
The cub named Su-Lin, which loosely translates to mean “a little bit of something very cute,” and her guardian, Ruth Harkness, became instant celebrities when they arrived by boat in San Francisco in November 1936. Prior to that moment, the only pandas seen by most Westerners were taxidermied ones.
In “The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China’s Most Exotic Animal,” journalist Vicki Constantine Croke details the unlikely expedition to find, care for, transport and settle on a home for the baby panda almost 90 years ago. It’s a fantastic read that explains the journey better than I can in this newsletter. And, it explains through Harkness’s own letters to friends and families her love and respect for China and its people. Back when it was easier — and more prestigious — to kill a rare breed and deliver its pelt to the highest bidder, Su-Lin’s story also hints at the modern notion of preservation and conservation.
Today, all pandas in captivity and the wild are owned by the Chinese government, which loans them to animal care facilities for breeding, research and protection. Called panda diplomacy, the agreements between China and U.S. facilities are often expensive and specific, but have contributed to a growing panda population. Formerly endangered, the species has been upgraded to vulnerable.
As my son and I watched the National Zoo’s three pandas eat and play on a cool, misty morning with almost no one else around, I completely understood the fascination most of Chicago must have had when Su-Lin arrived at the Brookfield Zoo in 1937. These roly poly pandas benefit from the decades of experience animal caretakers have had with the species ever since.
And, if you’d like to know where you can still visit Su-Lin today, read on. It’s close to home.
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Thanks for reading!
— Kori Rumore, visual reporter
Chicago history | More newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition
An ‘astonishingly successful’ expedition: Chicago becomes first city in the world to have a complete panda specimen — a dead one
In an era before conservationists and animal rights activists questioned the hunting of wild animals for sport, President Theodore Roosevelt’s sons embarked on an expedition to China that was sponsored by Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History — and their most prized trophy is still on display in the museum’s Hall of Asian Mammals. Read more.
Taking on her husband’s cause: Ruth Harkness travels to China
William Harkness was a Harvard-educated explorer from a wealthy New York family who set out to bag a panda in China just 15 days after he married Ruth Elizabeth Combs, a dress designer from a modest Pennsylvania upbringing who was “rarely seen without a smoke in one hand and a highball in the other,” Vicki Constantine Croke later wrote.
His death from lung cancer while in Shanghai meant William Harkness would never get the opportunity to begin his mission. That’s where his inexperienced wife stepped in. Read more.
‘Seeker of panda dies’ Harkness succumbs in China to malignant tumor
‘Woman captures live panda’
Ruth Harkness, her partner Quentin Young and their crew discovered a baby panda in a hollow tree shortly after arriving in China’s Sichuan Province in November 1936. By taking the panda alive, Harkness had to figure out how to care for it. What did a panda eat? How often did it eat and in what quantity? According to Croke, Harkness brought a baby bottle and powdered milk on the expedition — just in case she encountered a cub — and it became vital to keeping the cub nourished.
In its first report of the panda’s capture, the Tribune described how a treatment for human babies was being given to Su-Lin for its colic. Read more.
Finding a new home for Su-Lin
By late December 1936, Su-Lin and Harkness were traveling by train toward New York. The explorer planned to deliver the panda to the Bronx Zoo but its executives balked at Harkness’s $20,000 fee (more than $400,000 in today’s dollars) for the transaction. The Great Depression and the threat of war meant Harkness would not be able to recuperate her costs.
It was during a stopover in Chicago that Harkness met with directors from the Chicago Zoological Park (now known as Brookfield Zoo). She was willing to leave Su-Lin in the zoo’s care if the group would finance her next expedition to China — with the goal of finding a mate for the panda. While the team thought the proposition over, the lady and her panda moved to New York. Read more.
‘So long, Su-Lin; we like you, but not at $20,000! Brookfield Zoo gives up idea of buying panda.
Su-Lin arrives in Chicago to ‘panda-monium’
With no agreement made but her options running out, Harkness returned to Chicago with Su-Lin in early 1937. She agreed to loan the panda to the Brookfield Zoo for a three-month trial. The first day the cub was displayed to the public, it “snuggled up in a baby coop and slept and slept,” the Tribune reported. After the zoo agreed to give Harkness $10,000 for her second expedition to China, she tearfully kissed Su-Lin goodbye. Read more.
‘Su-Lin likes it at Brookfield; so she’ll stay’
‘Su-Lin ends year at zoo; weight up to 126 pounds’
Brookfield Zoo’s main attraction
Thousands of visitors — as many as 60,000 a day, according to one estimate — were visiting the panda.
The Tribune called it, “a fat, wooly creature that flops about like a clown, looks like a surrealistic teddy bear, and is as bright as a human child of 3.” Read more.
Harkness delivers a companion
On her second excursion to China, Harkness and her crew found a panda they originally named Diana (after Quentin Young’s wife) but then chose Mei-Mei, which means “younger sister.” Unfortunately for Harkness, her contract with the Brookfield Zoo stipulated she must capture a male panda. Still, the zoo accepted the playmate for Su-Lin in early 1938, and gave the explorer $7,500 for a third trip to China.
“This time I will stay in the interior until I get a male giant panda — or until my money runs out,” she told reporters. Read more.
‘Su-Lin greets sister with a poke on nose’
‘Panda hunter tells story of patient quest’
Su-Lin dies just six weeks after Mei-Mei’s arrival
The first panda to live in captivity died on April 1, 1938, after a short illness and became front-page news. A necropsy by Field Museum experts later revealed the panda died from pneumonia.
When contacted in New York, Harkness burst into tears and told reporters: “This is terrible. I never expected anything like it to happen. She was the sweetest, best natured little animal I had ever seen. I don’t know what this will do to my plans.” Read more.
Su-Lin’s final surprise
Su-Lin’s necropsy revealed another important detail — the panda was male and not female, as previously believed! Read more.
Harkness’s demise
The former dress designer turned expedition leader would not bring another panda to the U.S. Years of drinking and bouts of depression took a toll. She was discovered in a bathtub at a Pittsburgh hotel, dead of “acute alcoholic gastro-enteritis,” the Tribune reported in 1947. She was 46. Read more.
Where you can see Su-Lin and the Roosevelt pandas today
The Field Museum’s mammal hall has the preserved animals on display. Watch a video.
Remembering the most famous animal to ever call Chicago home. It wasn’t a cow but a gorilla named Bushman.
Join our Chicagoland history Facebook group for more from Chicago’s past.
Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Ron Grossman and Marianne Mather at rgrossman@chicagotribune.com and mmather@chicagotribune.com.
