contributed by Emily Gainer, Assistant Processing Archivist/Special Collections Librarian.
Through thorough record-keeping, the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers document two studies relating to teaching American Sign Language (ASL) to five cross-fostered chimpanzees over 15 years. Yet, the papers also document the humans involved in the Gardners’ lives and research. One of these stories is that of Jane Goodall, primatologist and anthropologist, who is considered the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees.
Box M7992, Folder 13
Jane Goodall stands between Beatrix T. Gardner (right) and R. Allen Gardner (left) at the Gardners’ ranch in Reno, Nevada, circa 1990s.
Box M7992, Folder 13
Early correspondence between Jane van Lawick (Goodall) and the Gardners references their exchange of information, most notably the similarities and differences between wild chimpanzees and the cross-fostered chimpanzees in the Gardner studies. In a letter written by van Lawick in January 30, 1969, she thanks the Gardners for sending copies of their daily logs about the chimpanzee Washoe. She also writes, “So often during my years of acquaintance with the chimps here I have been certain, within myself, that they have a true sense of identity. Yet it is not possible to prove it in the wild. Your observations of Washoe’s reaction to her mirror image and responses to questions asked are particularly revealing.” The entire letter (below) is filled with observations of wild chimpanzees and demonstrates the sharing of information between these three researchers.
A few months later, Beatrix T. Gardner referenced Goodall’s work in her research notes. During Project Washoe (1966-1970), daily logs were kept to document Washoe’s activities, moods, diet, and ASL communication. The handwritten entry dated July 24, 1969, includes a drawing of a chimpanzee on the back of a crouching human. Beatrix wrote underneath this drawing, “W [Washoe] loves to jump up and down, stiff-legged on Dr. G [Gardner]’s back. Pulls him forward into appropriate position. This is like photos of attack in Goodall’s book yet W. does it with extreme merriment.”
The relationship continued in what would become an important experience for the Gardners. They traveled to Goodall’s field station, Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. The Gardners made this trip during August 1971, which was after Project Washoe ended in 1970 and before the second study began with the chimpanzee Moja in 1972.
August 7, 1971: “Here we are at Jane Goodall’s field station waiting for the chimps to come.” When discussing traveling to the station by train: “It took us a lot longer to get here than planned…And no room left in 1st class so we had to go 2nd class (there remained still a 3rd class below that). We did have one piece of luck in that Jane G. herself had come into Dar es Salaam (our starting point in Africa) on business so we had a most distinguished traveling companion. We left Dar es Salaam at 5:30am on Wednesday and got to the field station at 11:30am Thursday. But most of the trip was interesting and even exciting.”
R. Allen Gardner to his mother, May (Box M8013, Folder 2)
The Gardners not only took handwritten notes (below) identifying the wild chimpanzees and their behaviors, they also filmed parts of their Gombe experience on 8mm film (above). The clip includes their living environment, which Allen described to his mother in a letter dated August 13, 1971: “At night we sleep in a thatched cabin with a gorgeous view of Lake Tanganyika.”
After returning from Gombe, Beatrix wrote a thank you letter to Jane van Lawick Goodall. This letter, dated September 14, 1971, summarizes the Gardners’ experience but also includes reflections relating to Project Washoe. Beatrix writes, “we missed our Washoe tremendously…and we wished we could have been as nice as her own species about discipline and reassurance” (below).
Contact with Goodall continued after the Gardners completed their chimpanzee studies in 1981. Goodall visited the Gardner ranch in Reno, Nevada (see photographs above). The original photographs are not dated, but they appear to be taken in the early 1990s. Goodall also wrote to Allen in 1995 expressing her condolences after hearing of Trixie’s unexpected death while on a speaking tour in Italy.
In addition to Goodall, the Gardners corresponded and collaborated with a number of primate researchers, including Roger Fouts, Keith Hayes, Winthrop Kellogg, William Lemmon, Francine Penny Patterson, Duane M. Rumbaugh, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, and Herb Terrace. The Gardner papers also document the sometimes contentious relationships between them. As Sue Savage-Rumbaugh writes to Trixie Gardner in 1994, “I feel very badly that somehow all of us in the field of ape language got off on the wrong foot with each other and that we didn’t do as good a job as we could have as scientists of helping and sharing with one another.” She continues, “it’s really hard to work with apes and it’s really hard to know for sure everything that they can do.”
The story of Jane Goodall and the Gardners is one of the many gems found in the 282 boxes of archival materials of the Gardner papers. The R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers finding aid and over 3,400 still images are available through our online repository. To access materials in the R. Allen and Beatrix T. Gardner papers, contact our CCHP reference archivist at ahap@uakron.edu.