In the 1930s pandas were more myth than reality, with very few westerners being privileged enough to have seen one. Only a few hunters had been able to bring back pelts and specimen, which were very popular among museums. One of those hunters was Theodore Roosevelt in 1929.

These trophies however, got the western world more and more interested in these strange creatures. Many expeditions were made to try and capture a live panda.

One of these expeditions was made by William Harkness who had also captured komodo dragons in the Dutch East Indies. In 1936, he set off to China, but before his expedition could begin, he died of illness in Shanghai.

His wife back in America, Ruth Harkness, declared that she had ‘inherited an expedition’. On April 17, 1936, Ruth set off from New York to continue her husband’s dream of catching a live panda.

After a long dangerous trip into the Chinese mountains, Ruth returned to America in December that same year, with the first panda cub ever to set foot on western soil. Su Lin, as the panda was called, was bought by Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo. The zoo had its biggest visitation day ever when Su Lin went on display.

Soon, every zoo wanted their own pandas, and in ten years, 14 pandas were captured by foreigners, which lead to a ban on catching pandas. Instead, China used them as good will ambassadors. Two dozen pandas were given away to Russia, America, Mexico, Germany, and other countries.

Harkness herself returned to China several times, bringing back another baby panda, and writing the book ‘The Lady and the Panda’ about her experiences.

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