Ludwig Gattermann's The Practical Methods of Organic Chemistry (translated into English, 1896) has two references to reduction of aromatics with zinc dust:

[![enter image description here][1]][1]
 
The first one refers to Liebigs Annalen, issue 140, page 295 (1866):

>Ueber die Reduction aromatischer Verbindungen mittelst Zinkstaub, Adolf Baeyer 

This roughly translates to "On the reduction of aromatic compounds using zinc dust".

The second one refers to Chemische Berichte, issue 1, page 43 (1868):

> Ueber Alizarin und Anthracen, C. Graebe C. Liebermann

This translates to "On alizarin and anthracen". Wiley, who now owns the Berichte, cites the page numbers as 49-51.

**Name of the reaction**

The reaction is given without name, even in modern textbooks. Maybe it should be called Baeyer reduction of aromatic oxygen-containing compounds.

**Mechanism of the reaction**

Maybe this would be a good research project because it does not seem like the mechanism is known.

  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/ommCX.jpg