Since 2021, the University of Edinburgh, Heritage Collections have been working alongside the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland to create an archive for RZSS. In addition to operating Edinburgh Zoo and Highland Wildlife Park, RZSS supports education, research and conservation projects in the UK and around the world and has been a part of Scotland’s zoological landscape since 1909.

Heritage and RZSS staff worked together to gather historical material across RZSS’ headquarters at Edinburgh Zoo and move them to the University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections. Thanks to extensive conservation, cataloguing, and selective digitisation, the history of RZSS is now open to all.

Using material from the RZSS archive, this exhibition tells the story of how RZSS and Edinburgh Zoo was founded, the work that has gone into making this collection accessible, and some of the stories from the archives and those who contribute to RZSS today.