Author talk and presention: “The Zoo Lady: How Belle Benchley Built the San Diego Zoo”

Join award-winning historian and storyteller Dr. Sandra E. Bonura for a fully illustrated presentation featuring rare vintage zoo photographs, archival movie clips, and historic radio broadcasts. Together, we’ll celebrate her new 2026 book, The Zoo Lady: How Belle Benchley Built the San Diego Zoo, and uncover the extraordinary, historically ignored story of Belle Benchley—a middle-aged single mother who took a temporary bookkeeping job in 1925 and transformed a struggling local menagerie into the world-renowned San Diego Zoo.

As the world’s first female zoo director, “The Zoo Lady” commanded a male-dominated field for nearly 30 years. She guided the zoo through the Great Depression and World War II, pioneered modern cageless habitats, and revolutionized global standards for animal welfare—all right in our own backyard.

Bring your own zoo memories for an engaging, interactive conversation on local heritage, female leadership, and the fierce grit that shaped modern wildlife conservation.

The event will include a book signing with the author, Sandra Bonura.