Buffalo at the National Zoological Park, 1890s

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Source: Smithsonian Annual Report 1891, page 49. See also OAHP Newsletter; Ewing paper; and neg. 9038.

The original negative number is MNH-9039, but because of the original negative's condition, the original photograph was re-scanned and given new negative and digital file numbers. In 1888 Hornaday had, at Secretary Langley's direction, undertaken a survey of land along Rock Creek in northwest Washington lying between the White House and Georgetown to determine its suitability as a zoo site. The National Zoological Park was established by an Act of Congress in March 1889. The Secretary of the Smithsonian, the Secretary of the Interior, and the President of the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, were constituted as Commissioners of a National Zoological Park in order to purchase land for a zoo in the District of Columbia, "...for the advancement of science and the instruction and recreation of the people." The commissioners ultimately acquired approximately one hundred and sixty-six acres at this site, some by condemnation, most by purchase. In April 1890 Congress passed another act, placing the National Zoological Park under the direction of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

Buffaloes grazing at the National Zoological Park in 1891 soon after the completion of the first building, the Buffalo and Elk Barn, a glorified log cabin house for bison and elk. In the background an elk in his yard is visible. The first inhabitants of the Zoo were the 185 animals under the care of William Temple Hornaday, Curator of Living Animals, United States National Museum, that had been sheltered by fences behind the Smithsonian Institution Building.

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 95, Box 46, Folder: 13

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu