Before the expeditions and society headlines, there was an Institute, a family, and a name. Explore the surviving records of their beginnings.
Select a year. Inspect the records.
27 October 1886 · New York
An Institute before an Iris.
Theodore Cockatoo founded the Institute for Recovery of Irreplaceable Specimens six years before Iris was born. Its original emblem places a cockatoo beside the tools of exploration.
The original Institute emblem, identified in the archive as the founding logo of 1886.Read the transcript
I.R.I.S. — Institute for Recovery of Irreplaceable Specimens. Founded 1886.
Theodore Cockatoo, founder of I.R.I.S. The portrait’s date is not specified.
5 May 1892 · New York
A name already known.
Theodore and Beatrice welcomed a daughter, Iris. A short notice, an Institute circular and society coverage preserve three different announcements of the same arrival.
The short birth notice. The clipping itself has no visible publication title or date.Read the transcript
COCKATOO.—To Theodore and Beatrice Cockatoo, of New York, a daughter, Iris.
Director’s Circular No. 27, issued 9 May 1892. Receipt stamps mark London, Paris, Bombay and Cairo.Read the transcript
Institute for Recovery of Irreplaceable Specimens. Director’s Circular No. 27. New York — 9 May 1892.
To the Patrons, Correspondents, and Friends of the Institute:
Mr. Theodore Cockatoo, Director of the Institute for Recovery of Irreplaceable Specimens, is pleased to announce the birth of a daughter to Theodore and Beatrice Cockatoo on the fifth of May, 1892.
The child, who will be called Iris, and Mrs. Cockatoo are in excellent health.
The Director has requested that this happy intelligence be shared with the Institute’s patrons, correspondents, and friends throughout the world.
With great pleasure, Theodore Cockatoo. File No. 27.
Receipt stamps: London, 14 May 1892; Paris, 18 May 1892; Bombay, 27 May 1892; Cairo, 2 June 1892.
“Miss Iris Cockatoo Arrives,” The New York Social Register, 14 May 1892. Society notices the shared name; the family offers no explanation.Read the transcript
The New York Social Register. Saturday, May 14, 1892. Society Intelligence. Miss Iris Cockatoo Arrives.
Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Cockatoo announce the birth of a daughter, Iris, on Thursday, the fifth of May, 1892, at their New York residence. Mrs. Cockatoo and the infant are reported in excellent health.
Mr. Cockatoo, whose Institute for Recovery of Irreplaceable Specimens is already familiar to our readers, is said to have announced the happy event with an enthusiasm usually reserved for the return of an expedition.
Society will doubtless observe that the young lady shares her name with her father’s celebrated Institute. Whether this was sentiment, coincidence, or merely the inevitable result of Mr. Cockatoo’s devotion to both enterprises, the family has offered no explanation.
Miss Iris Cockatoo has therefore entered the world as she will presumably enter society: with a name already known.
1913 · Family and office
A family portrait. A formal appointment.
Beatrice, Iris and Theodore appear together in this family photograph. In the same year, Iris’s twenty-first birthday gala marked her public emergence. Internal Circular No. 17, dated 5 May 1913, appoints her Associate Director of the Institute.
The Cockatoo family, 1913. From left: Beatrice, Iris and Theodore.Internal Circular No. 17, 5 May 1913. Iris Cockatoo is appointed Associate Director; the copy bears a received stamp dated 6 May 1913.Read the transcript
INTERNAL CIRCULAR No. 17
5 MAY 1913
APPOINTMENT OF ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Effective this fifth day of May, Miss Iris Cockatoo is appointed Associate Director of the Institute for Recovery of Irreplaceable Specimens. Department heads and expedition personnel will extend to her the authorities and courtesies appropriate to that office.
By order of the Director,
Theodore Cockatoo
Founder and Director
DISTRIBUTION: Department Heads; Expedition Office; Collections; Exhibition Galleries; Administrative Registry
Received stamp: MAY 6 1913 · I.R.I.S.