National Zoological Park, District of Columbia

This national zoo opened in 1889, to showcase the Smithsonian’s collection of living animals. It was the third exhibit area of the Smithsonian to open, following the Castle, and the National Museum Building. The zoo has 163 acres in the Rock Creek part of DC, and was designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. In the early days, zoos were like outdoor museums, and curated animal specimens were considered museumological artifacts. The National Zoo has since expanded physically and intellectually to consider the non-human, natural world, in a more ecological way now, and now includes the 3,200 acre Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, in Front Royal, Virginia, a training site for conservation which is not open to the public.