[edan-image:id=siris_sic_9151,size=300,left]Originally conceived by its founder, William Temple Hornaday, as a place in which to house endangered species and to conduct research, the National Zoological Park was established by an act of Congress in 1889. Hornaday, a taxidermist for the Smithsonian’s US National Museum, began to keep live animals as models in a shed behind the Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle, and those animals soon proved popular with the public.| Smithsonian Institution Archives
Though today it holds a visitor’s center, exhibit space, and offices, the Smithsonian Institution Building, or "Castle," once also contained residential spaces. The Castle was home to the Institution’s first Secretary, Joseph Henry, and his family from 1855 to 1878. During the building’s early years it also included apartments for Smithsonian employees and visiting scholars. [edan-image:id=siris_sic_8505,size=200,left]But some other inhabitants of the Castle have been less conventional....| Smithsonian Institution Archives