AA-2026-CA180D
On the image
Two elephants stand together at the edge of a shallow watering hole while an ostrich works the margins, the whole arrangement looking less like captivity and more like a carefully staged argument for Africa that someone built in Florida. This was the postwar zoo's central promise: that a sandlot with palms and a painted pond could deliver the Serengeti to a family on a Sunday drive. The scattered hay, the scrub treeline, and the flat subtropical light suggest one of Florida's open-range wildlife attractions — Busch Gardens or a similar roadside safari operation — where the 1950s idea of conservation meant putting large animals somewhere warm and calling it educational.
The animals are backlit into near-silhouette, which is either a photographic accident or the moment the vacation snapshot became something better than intended. Either way, the elephants are plainly indifferent to the effect. The ostrich, for its part, is doing what ostriches always do in photographs — arriving at the edge of the frame with the energy of someone who was not invited but decided to come anyway.
The person who took this almost certainly showed it in a slide show and said 'and here are the elephants,' as though the ostrich weren't standing right there, visibly stealing the scene.
Visually related — by likeness
African Elephants and Ostrich at Watering Hole, Florida Zoo, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-CA180D. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/african-elephants-and-ostrich-at-watering-hole-florida-zoo-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026CA180D,
title = {African Elephants and Ostrich at Watering Hole, Florida Zoo, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-CA180D},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/african-elephants-and-ostrich-at-watering-hole-florida-zoo-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - African Elephants and Ostrich at Watering Hole, Florida Zoo, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-CA180D UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/african-elephants-and-ostrich-at-watering-hole-florida-zoo-1950s ER -
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