Description: When Dr. Ted Reed became director of the National Zoological Park in 1959, he committed himself to carrying out the zoo’s complete set of mandates that included research, education, and conservation of endangered species. All these came together in a new non-public facility, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, founded in 1975 in Front Royal, Virginia.
Description: The National Zoological Park was conceived by William Temple Hornaday and established by an act of Congress in 1889. The Smithsonian’s collection of living animals was originally intended to aid taxidermists’ studies, but Smithsonian Secretaries Spencer F. Baird and Samuel P. Langley helped expand the small menagerie’s purpose. Today it houses over 2,000 animals of around 400