Sheep in Prospect Park

[Sheep in Prospect Park], ca 1880, V1974.7.107; Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection, ARC.191; Brooklyn Historical Society.

Can you imagine witnessing this idyllic scene in Prospect Park’s Long Meadow? In the early years of the park, New Hampshire and black-faced Southdown sheep could be seen grazing in the Long Meadow with lambs in tow. Olmstead and Vaux, the designers of the park, added the sheep for practical and design purposes. The sheep helped maintain the pasture and provided a peaceful tranquility to the park with their tending shepherds and dogs. One report noted the “lambs so tame that they ate from children’s palms.”

In 1934, the New York Times reported that the sheep in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow were added to the flock in Prospect Park to make room for the development of Tavern on the Green. Sometime in the 1930s, all sheep were removed from Prospect Park under the direction of park commissioner Robert Moses. It is unclear exactly why the sheep were removed. With the backdrop of the Great Depression, there is some speculation that the sheep were removed in an effort to protect them from theft. If you have any additional information about when or why the sheep were removed from Prospect Park, please share them in the comments below!

The photo of the week comes from the Adrian Vanderveer Martense collection and depicts sheep in Prospect Park around 1880. The collection contains lantern slides and photographs taken by Martense, an amateur photographer, documenting Brooklyn during the last quarter of the 19th century, in particular the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn and the Blizzard of 1888, as well as other images of Brooklyn. To see more photographs from this collection, including a few additional sheep photographs, check out this gallery.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. library@brooklynhistory.org