The First Panda in America

Witness History: Archive 2013 - A podcast by BBC World Service

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In November 1936, a US socialite and her Chinese-American guide captured a giant panda cub in the forests of China. Ruth Harkness took the cub to the USA and kept it in her New York flat, before selling it to a Chicago zoo.Photo: Quentin Young, the panda cub and Ruth Harkness. Courtesy of Jolly Young.