The Hippopotamus at the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park

The Count de Montizón, a nephew of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, was a founding member of the Royal Photographic Society. With a penchant for photographing animals, he made this image of Obaysch, a star attraction at London's Zoological Gardens and the inspiration for a wave of "hippomania." A gift from Abbas Pasha of Egypt to Queen Victoria, Obaysch had been captured on an island in the White Nile, loaded onto a specially built boat, and floated up river to Cairo. Kept in the yard of the British Consulate while awaiting his passage to England, he was already "as tame and playful as a Newfoundland puppy."