Albert Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire

Albert Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (December 2, 1835 – January 30, 1919) was a French zoologist who served as a director of the Jardin d'acclimatation du Bois de Boulogne in Paris from 1865 to 1893.

Saint-Hilaire was born in Paris in a well-known family of zoologists.

Following this turbulent period he rebuilt the institution and received gifts of animals from zoos across Europe and in 1874 he was able to draw 600,000 visitors again.

[1] He then became involved in attracting the masses with exhibitions of human ethnology which drew large crowds.

These included displays of Nubians, Eskimos, Argentine Gauchos and dwarfs who were claimed to be from the Kingdom of Lilliput.