Still image from Meshie, The Child of a Chimpanzee via The New York Times.
English
35mm
B&W
Silent
"This film records, in the informal style of a home movie, some of a young chimpanzee's (Pan troglodytes) activities while raised in the Ravens' home. She plays with a hose, joins in games with the Raven children, manipulates tools, encounters snakes and mice, writes with a pencil, eats with a spoon, rides a tricycle, and feeds a human infant." University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.
"By 1934 Meshie, now seventy pounds and as strong as a man, had become unmanageable. She was sold to the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago where she died in 1937 after giving birth to a daughter. Her remains were returned to the AMNH for preparation and she presently can be seen in the Hall of Primates, sitting on a log, her chin propped up on her knuckles, looking pensively at all who pass." American Museum of Natural History.
Henry Raven's son, Harry, reflects on growing up with Meshie in the articles: "Reunion With a Childhood Bully, Taxidermied" (The New York Times, June 5, 2009) and "A Rival Recalled" (The New York Times, June 6, 2009).
This film is held by the American Museum of Natural History.
American Museum of Natural History