05/01/2026
During her time in New York for the Reel Wild Film Festival, Dr. Edie Widder had some truly special opportunities thanks to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
At the New York Aquarium, she visited the original Bathysphere, the vessel that helped pioneer human exploration of the deep ocean. Standing beside it is a powerful reminder of how far ocean science has come and the curiosity that continues to drive discovery.
At the Bronx Zoo, Edie was given rare access to archival works by Else Bostelmann, whose paintings brought the deep sea to life during the earliest days of exploration—highlighting the long standing connection between art and science in helping us understand the ocean’s most mysterious places.
Edie shared, “What an incredible thrill to visit the NY Aquarium and see this legendary artifact of deep-sea exploration history – the bathysphere that carried William Beebe and Otis Barton more than 3000 feet into the deep sea. It’s shocking to see how small it is (4.75 ft diameter) and imagine those two men, both over 6 feet tall, jammed inside, peering out those portholes for the first time at the mysterious, unexplored world that constitutes most of the living space on our planet.”
“They tried taking photographs out the bathysphere without success, so Beebe depended on artists to share his discoveries. The most prolific of these was Else Bostelmann. Incredibly, the Wildlife Conservation Society has hundreds of these paintings in their archives, which I got to view. What an amazing privilege!”
Thank you, Moments like these continue to inspire the work we do every day to better understand and protect our waters.
