Can Monkeys Talk?

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Summary

Subtitled "A Queer Scientific Experiment at the Smithsonian Institute," the short article describes what it calls the funniest experiment ever conducted by the Smithsonian Institution when an honary curator named Professor Garner used a graphophone to record noises emitted by two monkeys from the zoo at the rear of the Smithsonian building. Garner's hope was to play one monkey's sounds back to the other to elicit a response; immediate results were inconclusive at best, but Garner still hoped to gather enough information to later translate the recorded monkey language.

Subject

Garner, Richard Lynch

Category

Smithsonian Institution History Bibliography

Contained within

St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat (Newspaper)

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

September 21, 1890

Topic

  • Primates
  • Language and languages
  • Science
  • Monkeys
  • Phonograph
  • Experiments
  • Science--Experiments

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