Herbert Edwin Bradley

Herbert Edwin Bradley was a Canadian-born American lawyer, real estate investor, big-game hunter and zoo director. Born to a farmer in Brooklin, Ontario, Bradley graduated from the University of Michigan and the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. Bradley practiced in the field of mining law before becoming involved in real estate investment in Chicago. He married Mary Hastings Bradley in 1910, and their daughter, Alice Bradley Sheldon, was born in 1915. Bradley took his family to the Belgian Congo in 1921 as part of Carl Ethan Akeley's American Museum of Natural History expedition. This was one of the first expeditions to study gorillas. The expedition trailed some of the animals and shot five for display in American museums. Bradley undertook other expeditions to Africa in 1924 and 1930–1; he also traveled to Sumatra and Indochina in 1935 to hunt tigers. Bradley became chair of the Brookfield Zoo's animal committee in 1933, with responsibility for sourcing animals for the collection. He held this position and appointment as vice-president of the zoo until 1951, when he resigned to undertake an animal-collecting expedition in Africa.