Joy Adamson

Austrian-British naturalist, painter, writer, collector and illustrator (1910–1980)

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Born: January 20, 1910
Died: January 3, 1980
Zodiac sign: Aquarius
Birth year: 1910

About Joy Adamson

Friederike Victoria "Joy" Adamson (née Gessner; 20 January 1910 – 3 January 1980) was a Czech-born Austrian-Kenyan naturalist, artist and author. Her book, Born Free, describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa. Born Free was printed in several languages and made into an Academy Award–winning movie of the same name. In 1977, she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art. Joy Adamson is best known for her conservation efforts associated with Elsa the Lioness. Elsa became the first lioness successfully released back into the wild, the first to have contact after release, and the first to have a litter of cubs.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Joy Adamson was born

Joy Adamson was born in 1910. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1910

Best-selling book"The Rosary" – Florence L. Barclay

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentJack Johnson defends heavyweight title, sparking nationwide debate
Top headlineBoy Scouts of America founded
Technology milestoneFirst neon lighting demonstrated in Paris
World population~1.7B

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderWilliam Howard Taft
U.S. population92.2M

1910 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Joy Adamson's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure	1910	2026
Average home	$3,395	$435,000
Average income	$574	$67,500
Postage stamp	$0.02	$0.73
Population	92.2M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.