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Beautiful Jim Key was born sickly and weak, but became world famous and is remembered as the smartest horse in the world. His training and care came from a former enslaved man named Doctor William Key, and together, they made a profound impact on the world.
Likewise, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was a museum curator in South Africa who discovered a fish believed to be extinct in 1938. The discovery made a tremendous impact on science and natural understanding. Plus, she was very cool.
Transcript of Beautiful Jim Key
Have you ever seen a horse make change like the cashier when you pay for an ice cream cone with a crumpled $5 bill? Do you think a stallion can spell surnames? Could a filly tell time? Has there ever been a mustang who could do math? It sounds absurd, but it’s estimated that between 1897 and 1906, ten-million people saw a horse named Beautiful Jim Key do all of this…and more. Beautiful Jim Key was an extraordinary equine. So extraordinary, in fact, that people of his day and age considered him to be as smart as an average human second grader. Of course, in addition to his remarkable brainpower, his natural horsepower meant he could have easily beaten a classroom full of second graders in a footrace to boot. Take that kids! Smart AND Fast…or at least faster than a human kid.
Beautiful Jim Key’s unique abilities weren’t always obvious. When he first came into the world in 1889, Jim Key was a sickly and weak little foal. No one expected him to amount to much. If he even lived, it was clear that he certainly wasn’t gonna win any horseraces.
Before the brilliant horse came along, his trainer, a man named William Key, had been enslaved in Tennessee. William earned a reputation for his own brilliance – his was working with animals. After the Civil War brought freedom to William Key and millions of others, the man worked as a veterinarian and trainer. He became known as Doctor William Key and kindness and patience were the cornerstones of his approach to training a horse. Horses were pretty essential to life in much of America at this time, and people all over Tennessee called on Doctor William when they had horse troubles of their own.
William found Beautiful Jim’s mother languishing in a travelling circus sometime in the 1880s. Lauretta was special and William knew it. She was known as Lauretta Queen of Horses – which is quite a name. But it wasn’t just a magniloquent moniker – according to legend, she had once been the pride of the stable for a wealthy sheik in Persia – a descendant of horses owned by great pharaohs, stories even said. A sneaky man from England couldn’t help himself and saw the fortune he could earn with such a remarkable horse, so he daringly stole her in the night. He earned the fortune he had dreamed when he sold Lauretta to American entertainer P.T. Barnum. But Barnum didn’t keep her forever, she was sold several more times, each time to a lower and lower quality travelling entertainers.
Years later, William found her – languishing in a failing travelling circus. You’d have never known she was one of the most incredible horses to ever live. Sadly, she was sick, depressed, and had been abused. So William bought her and devoted himself to her care. Doctor Key nursed her back to health and did all he could to give such a remarkable horse the life she deserved. When Lauretta gave birth to a colt, Doctor William Key was certain it would be a strong, brilliant horse. Was he right? He was worse than right. He was wrong. At least at first.
No one who saw the puny little horse known as Jim Key held any hope for the gangly and sickly creature. They pointed at his malformed legs – there was no way he’d ever race. Heck, friends and neighbors talked openly about how unlikely he was to survive all. Many called him ugly. Doctor William was saw these things too, but he never gave up on Jim Key. There is a reason the horse is not remembered as “Ugly Jim Key.” Jim might not be the racehorse everyone expected, but there were other special things about him.
Jim Key’s unusual nature first showed up not long after Lauretta Queen of Horses died. Without his mother, the young horse was eager for connection. After watching how the dogs on the farm interacted with Doctor William, the horse began to mimic their behavior. He even got so good at acting like a dog that he insisted on living in the house with Jim’s family and the other indoor pets.
If you’re wondering, the answer is yes: Jim was housebroken. But unlike than most dogs – Jim could open the door for himself. Sometimes the urge would strike and he’d just head out to ramble the countryside before returning home for dinner or lights-out.
Doctor Key began giving the horse some special attention, training him in simple tasks in a barn behind the house. After accomplishing a task, Doctor Key would reward Beautiful Jim with an apple from the drawer in which he kept the fruit.
Something peculiar happened once after Doctor Key had finished one of these training sessions and left the horse in the barn. Beautiful Jim must’ve felt safely alone and he must have really enjoyued those apples because the horse confidently opened the reward drawer with his mouth and snagged a delicious apple to chow down on in solitude. Doctor William Key, happened to see through the window. Opening the drawer to get the apples was impressive but not totally surprising to the doctor – however he was truly startled to see the horse close the drawer afterwards. The clever creature was covering his tracks!
He was an observant animal. When William’s wife discovered that the horse could answer yes or no questions with a nod or a shake of the head, she knew this was not a normal horse living in their home. Sure, having a horse live in their home and act like a dog was probably a big giveaway, but the fact that he had learned to give answers simply by observing, not through his training, was truly remarkable.
With this new revelation, Doctor William Key started to work constantly with the horse. Apples, sugar cubes, patience, kindness, and rewards – those were some of the keys to unlock Jim Key’s genius. More importantly, both William the trainer and Jim the horse were incredibly intelligent – and they both cared about each other.
Originally the pair performed as part of William’s travelling medicine show, in which the horse was trained to do a bit of acting as William sold his homemade medical remedy called Keystone Liniment. Before long, however, all the focus was on Jim, who was soon officially known as Beautiful Jim Key. Once realizing that Jim was a far from ordinary horse, Willaim planned to teach Jim the alphabet one letter at a time. Maybe they’d make it 26, maybe they wouldn’t. But before long, Jim could recognize and identify everything from A to Z. “Well, okay how about numbers” William must’ve thought. “No problem,” Jim would have replied – if he could’ve spoken, of course.
At the age of seven, Beautiful Jim performed with Dr. Key at the 1897 World’s Fair in Nashville. It was their most important performance to date. The audience couldn’t believe what they were seeing. By pointing at large cards with his nose, Beautiful Jim could spell names, sort mail, even do basic arithmetic. See what I mean about a second grader? Beautiful Jim did his homework and William was a good teacher.
Of course, throughout their career, and still today, some people believed it was a hoax. Many think there was no way a horse could do these things. But Doctor William would tell anyone who asked that he was a kind and patient trainer. When you put that together with an unnaturally smart animal, the sky’s the limit. Plenty of doubters went looking for clues about a hoax, but no one ever found any evidence that Jim and William were frauds.
They performed for famous people Like Booker T. Washington and President McKinley. They thrilled groups of school children, and millions of Americans at fairs and concert halls. At the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis they were the highest grossing act at the entire celebration. Dr. Key and a business partner even wrote a play for Jim to star in which toured theatres and thrilled audiences– making him one of the earliest animal actors. To prove he was a star – consider this: this horse, Beautiful Jim Key travelled by private rail car, with two grooms, and a guard dog named Monk. Once a stray, Monk became a constant companion. He was often found perched on Jim’s back and was usually ready to chase off the press if the horse wasn’t in the mood to be seen or was working with Doctor Key.
During his life, Doc was one of the most visible and recognizable African-American men in the country and he went out of his way to schedule performances for Black audiences in many places where they were typically not allowed.
And as for the influence of Beautiful Jim – more important than impressing people with intellect and ability, Beautiful Jim Key taught the world the value of treating animals with kindness. Inspired by the famous relationship between Jim and William, millions of schoolchildren signed the “Beautiful Jim Pledge.” The pledge began like this: I will try to be kind to all harmless living creatures and try to protect them from cruel usage. Jim Key was also inspirational and foundational to the many Humane Societies that were organized America at this time. Thanks to his celebrity, Jim first raised awareness in the minds of many about the need to treat animals not as tools or beasts but as living creatures worthy of respect and kindness.
Transcript of Marjorie Courtney-Latimer and the Coelacanth
In South Africa, it’s typically hot in December and 1938 was no different. As you might guess, hot weather is a bad match for a dead fish. Things can get stinky pretty quickly. So as many people in the city of New London were making arrangements for the Christmas holiday of 1938, they were probably startled to see the curator of the small museum in town as she frantically pushed a cart through the crowded streets, along with her assistant – a man named Enoch. This museum curator was Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer and she was eager to protect the precious cargo in the wooden cart in front of her – in the bed was: a big dead fish. And her only focus was making sure this big dead fish – well over 100 lbs – did not spoil and rot over the warm weather over the Christmas holiday. Looking for a cool, safe solution she rolled expired sea creature to the mortuary. The mortician was not amused.
Are you out of you mind? You can’t bring that thing here. What will the families think if they find out?
Okay. So next she thought about the man who ran the cold storage – that building was filled with ice to chill food. Maybe he’d be cool with a stinking fish chilling in there too? No luck.
He at least came outside and took a look.
Yep, that’s one weird big dead fish. Never seen anything like it!
But he didn’t want the sea creature decomposing and stinking up the joint alongside his ice and food.
Alrighty then. So her last option was a taxidermist – which meant only part of the fish would be preserved. The outside and the skeleton would remain intact, mounted like a trophy fish an angler might catch in a tournament. But this was no trophy fish. This fish could change history. Of course, this also meant the rest of the fish would not preserved – no insides, no guts, no organs. They would be removed and discarded. Which would later create a bit of an unpleasant problem for poor Marjorie, But for now, she had to do what she had to do. And she deeply believed that preserving any of the remains of this fish were crucial.
Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was no stranger to nature and all of the creatures sharing space with us on Earth. Despite struggling with her health as a child, her family spent much time outside – her father worked for the railroad in South Africa, which meant they moved around a lot. When she was a toddler, they travelled to the beach at the southernmost tip of the African Continent – at one point the little girl fell asleep clutching a seashell she had fallen in love with and carried all day. There’s another story from a few years later of her visiting a relative who had a pond – and in the pond lived a mother duck with her ducklings. Wading into the pond with determination, young Marjorie carefully collected the baby ducklings one by one. It was her plan for the ducklings to sleep with her in her bed. Her parents gently said no to that scheme.
Many years later, as an adult, she made a dream come true when she finally lived among the wildlife for three months on the tiny, remote, and primitive Bird Island, off the South African Coast. It had always captured her imagination, and when the opportunity came, her parents agreed to join her. Despite the lack of anything – electricity, grocery stores, even newspapers – she learned much about the biology of the area, and was amazed by natural beauty. While there, she also made friends with a Captain Hendrik Goosen, who captained a fishing vessel that frequented the waters around the island. He’d bring her family things from the mainland, or else send mail and such back for them. It was a friendship that would eventually lead to a radical discovery.
When she was just 24 years old Marjorie was hired as the curator of the East London Museum – which had just been founded. The small building was mostly filled with trash, broken cases, and a few taxidermized birds which had been largely eaten by bugs. She had her work cut out for her. Over the years however she collected specimens of plants, rocks, minerals, and animal parts which she displayed and used to share her passion for the natural world. She even built an aquarium to hold fish.
All the while, she travelled to other museums, to spend time with experts and learn about new things to add, and new ways to share her small museum with the curious public. During these travels she made another friend Dr. JLB Smith. Doctor Smith was a professor and ichthyologist – which is a fancy name for someone who is a scientific expert of fish. He was very helpful to her and the museum in East London.
By the age of 31, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer was established as a curator and the museum had made great strides. Whenever her old friend Captain Goosen arrived at port, he made it a point to call her and let her know that there were fish and sharks his crew had caught in their nets – she was welcome to come take what she liked. When he called on December 22, 1938 she thought about saying thanks but no thanks. But something in her head told her to go. Good thing too.
When she hopped on board the boat, one of the crew helping her sort through the catch noticed her face when she caught a glimpse of a very strange fish.
“I’ve never seen it’s like,” he said. “We thought you’d be interested.”
She definitely was.
“I picked away the layers of slime to reveal the most beautiful fish I had ever seen. It was five feet long, a pale mauvy blue with faint flecks of whitish spots; it had iridescent silver-blue-green sheen all over. It was covered in hard scales, and it had four limb-like fins and a strange puppy-dog tail. It was a beautiful fish – more like a big china ornament-but I didn’t know what it was.”
She thought of drawings she had seen in science journals. Not drawings of fish, exactly, but drawings of fossils discovered around the world. She thought of her ichthyologist friend Dr. JLB Smith. She thought he needed to see this, because she had a sneaking suspicion that she was looking at a living fossil. That fish, the one she’d frantically pushed around town in a wagon to preserve, might be a fish that no human had ever laid eyes on before. Everyone assumed it had gone extinct millions of years ago. Was this a coelacanth?
She sent a letter to Dr Smith with an imperfect but detailed drawing. And waited to hear back. She waited and waited and waited. He and his wife were out of town, plus he had papers to grade. So he didn’t get the letter for days. When he finally did, he stared in disbelief. An extinct ancient fish, found alive in the waters around South Africa. Could it be possible? Could it be true. He barely slept for weeks afterwards because his mind raced with possibilities, excitement, and the wealth of knew knowledge this discovery would bring. He wanted every part of it preserved – a tall order he knew, now that a week or more had gone by. It would still be weeks before he was able to see it in person. So he asked Marjorie to save its innards – there would be much to learn from them.
You…you want me to save its guts? But they were pulled out by the taxidermist. Certainly, they are putrid. Plus I think I they were taken to the dump.
Please, try going to the dump.
For fish guts?
Yes for fish guts. And for science.
So Marjorie asked to scour the dump, in search of the putrefying guts of the not-actually-extinct coelacanth. Luckily for her, the guts had been dumped in the ocean with a bunch of other fish parts. They were certainly shark food by now. On one hand, this might limit what Dr. Smith could determine about the mysterious fish, but on the other hand… at least she didn’t have to spend hours poking through piles of garbage for rotten fish guts.
Almost seven weeks after the discovery, Dr. Smith finally arrived and the East London Museum. The fish on Marjorie’s table had dominated his brain for nearly every waking moment. And when he saw it, he knew.
“It could have been one of those creatures of 200 million years ago come alive again”
He knew that Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer had a coelacanth – a fish everyone believed had been dead for millions of years. It had only been seen in fossil form. But this was a real fish, who only a few weeks before had been swimming, alive, in the ocean. If it was here, that means there must have been more out there – people had been looking for them for decades, and here was the only one.
It was a dramatic and incredible discovery. He prepared his reports and submitted to the most important science journals and societies. After peer review and further defense, it was confirmed, this was a undiscovered species of coelacanth – living not extinct – but related to the many fossils found before the discovery.
Like all living creatures, this fish needed an official scientific name. So Dr. Smith gave it a name: Latimeria chalumnae. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer – protested and said it should be named after Henrik Goosen, the man who caught it. But Dr. Smith reminded her that she was the one with the scientific mind, the one who recognized it, the one who acted to save it for study, and the one who understood what the discovery meant. Had it not been for her, it would have disappeared forever and no one would have known.
Before being sent for study to scientists around the world, Marjorie’s coelacanth was put on display at the tiny and still new Eat London Museum. Lines stretched around the block to see the amazing discovery. The museum is still there today, and the preserved fish is in its collection, along with many other pieces of natural and South African History.
The fish has remained elusive. It took another 14 years for a second living coelacanth to be found, this one off the coast of Mozambique.
Marjorie lived a long life – to the age of 97. She worked her entire career at the museum, and upon retirement wrote a book about another one of her loves: flowers.
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