Walter Rothschild

Born into one of the wealthiest families in the world, Walter Rothschild became a well-known zoologist and one of Britain's best-known eccentrics. In this book, his niece Miriam describes his life.

Walter Rothschild was born into a family of bankers and was nearly the richest boy in the world. He was also so shy he barely spoke. He had no friends, but he loved every creature that crawled, slithered or flew. At the age of seven, Walter saw his first circus parade. He excitedly declared to his parents: "I’m going to collect animals from all over the world and build a museum!" Soon Walter had his first exotic creatures: kangaroos, wallabies and kiwis. From there his collection grew until it threatened to take over the Rothschild estate. Lord Rothschild wanted his son to lead the family business eventually. But Walter wouldn’t give up his dream. Strange Creatures is the story of how a painfully shy boy followed his passion and became a brilliant scientist, forever changing our understanding of the world’s diversity of creatures.

How to become Jewish and how to practise Judaism every day, written from a European Progressive Jewish perspective. Written with love to Judaism and British Humour."

In The Women of Rothschild, Natalie Livingstone reveals the role of women in shaping the legacy of the famous Rothschild dynasty, synonymous with wealth and power. From the East End of London to the Eastern seaboard of the United States, from Spitalfields to Scottish castles, from Bletchley Park to Buchenwald, and from the Vatican to Palestine, Natalie Livingstone follows the extraordinary lives of the Rothschild women from the dawn of the nineteenth century to the early years of the twenty-first. As Jews in a Christian society and women in a deeply patriarchal family, they were outsiders. Excluded from the family bank, they forged their own distinct dynasty of daughters and nieces, mothers and aunts. They became influential hostesses and talented diplomats, choreographing electoral campaigns, advising prime ministers, advocating for social reform, and trading on the stock exchange. Misfits and conformists, conservatives and idealists, performers and introverts, they mixed with everyone from Queen Victoria to Chaim Weizmann, Rossini to Isaiah Berlin, and the Duke of Wellington to Alec Guinness, as well as with amphetamine-dealers, suffragists and avant-garde artists. Rothschild women helped bring down ghetto walls in early nineteenth-century Frankfurt, inspired some of the most remarkable cultural movements of the Victorian period, and in the mid-twentieth century burst into America, where they patronized Thelonious Monk and drag-raced through Manhattan with Miles Davis. Absorbing and compulsive, The Women of Rothschild gives voice to the complicated, privileged, and gifted women whose vision and tenacity shaped history.

The Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum in Tring, Hertfordshire, England, forms part of the Natural History Museum in London, England. Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum provides information about its galleries, educational programs, history, and collections. Details about the hours of operation, admissions fees, and services of the museum are provided.