Cabinets of Wonder: Week 2

Brooklyn Botanical Garden
First Impressions:
After purchasing tickets, visitors pick up brochure-style maps and enter through a nondescript green metal gate. It’s an hour before closing and the atmosphere at the entrance is subdued. The gardens are peaceful, green, and relaxing. I want to lie on the grass and fall asleep.

Social, Emotional, Informational:
Winding paths make the garden seem larger than it really is. Despite my map and the navigational signs, I’m left with the feeling that I could get lost. And that’s a good thing. The grounds offer a break from the right angles and broad sidewalks of the concrete jungle. People wander, sit, and lie on the grass to read. I’m enchanted by the quaintness of the Shakespeare Sonnet Garden and the simple beauty of the Japanese pond. The sight of a boy running his miniature toy motorcycle along the top of a fence evokes the excitement of being seven years old and having space to run around.

Call me nostalgic, but I love the dated look of the brown and white signs that identify each flower, plant, and tree. I’m in garden–I don’t want modern bright colors and fancy graphics. Small, low to the ground navigation signs mark the intersections of paths; like trail markings in the woods, they use only arrows and names to inform and direct visitors.

Centrl Park Zoo

First Impressions:

The zoo! I arrived just before the afternoon sea lion feeding, and immediately rushed toward the central exhibit. As the sea lions swam past, water sloshed over the sides of the tank making a satisfyingly messy, wet sound. Children and their parents eagerly awaited the show, pointing and laughing at the exquisitely nimble creatures. So much activity! So much joy! I stood on my tip toes for a better view. The show began.

Social, Emotional, Informational:
The central park zoo is exquisite. It’s tiny, but allows you to become lost. It caters to families and school children, but I felt perfectly at home.
I am usually meticulous about looking at signs and reading captions, but the zoo turned me into a eager animal hunter. (Embarrassingly, I called the sea lions seals for the first ten minutes I was there.) Like the hoards of fourth graders, I eagerly pressed myself up against the glass for a better view of a polar bear or red panda. There is something about the immediacy of the animals that makes it feel okay to ignore the text in favor of the creature. I may have learned nothing official about snow leopards — nothing about their habitats, eating habits, or endangered status — but I did see how long and silky and strong their tails are, how majestically their shoulders move as they across the landscape, how they can disappear from view with a single, powerful jump. I appreciated the captions and text provided, and occasionally read it when the animal on display was hidden from view, but the creatures themselves always took precedence over the reading material.

I was particularly taken with the rainforest exhibit. Tamed by a life of contact with humans, the birds in the tropical aviary calmly offered themselves up for view. There was a flurry of preening, pecking, and flapping. True or not, I was left with the impression that the birds behaved as though they would in the wild, and I, the unobtrusive observer, had an insiders view.

Watch out for droppings!

I was nearly beheaded by a Speckled Mousebird

Close enough to touch

Reviews:

Kid at the zoo:
I thought that snow leopards could only live in the snow, but today I learned that they can live in New York City! It was so fast and pretty, and it looked just like my cat Scout but 50 times bigger. My mom says thats because Scout and the snow leopard are related. They’re both felines. After the snow leopard we went to look at the puffins and penguins. They both live in the cold, but puffins live in the north pole and penguins live in the south pole. Puffins are smaller and puffy. There were some weird looking ones that had funny orange eyebrows and those are the ones that I liked the best. The glass was so cold!!! I blew on it and made it all foggy even though it was warm outside. Then we got ice cream and my mom said we had to leave.

A frustrated, fifty-something horticulturist reviews the Brooklyn Botanical: Plants, not Plaques. Tired of flashy signage and unreadable captions? Head to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for a breath of fresh air. Unlike it’s larger counterpart in the Bronx, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden relies on plants, not flashy signage, to attract attention. Flora-loving visitors will note that restoration efforts have stayed true to the original 1910 exhibits, providing an excellent glimpse into early 20th century horticultural practice and display. Subdued labels provide precise information regarding genus and species, and occasional earthen-colored panels offer context and history. Plants, not plaques, are the true stars of the show.