Description: The National Zoological Park was founded in 1889 to preserve, teach, and conduct research about the animal world. The zoo opened in Rock Creek Park, Washington, DC in 1891, on a site designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, and has been home to giant pandas, Asian elephants, and Smokey the Bear. History of the National Zoological ParkAdditional Historic Images of
Description: [edan-image:id=siris_sic_14623,size=300,left]Born in 1936 in Washington DC, John Robert Edward Kinard would become the first African American director of a Smithsonian museum at the age of 31. Kinard’s circuitous path into museum work took him from development work in Africa to community organizing on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to a dilapidated theater on Nichols Street in DC’s