This compact history focuses on the synergistic relationship between the National Museum of Natural History (of the Smithsonian Institution) and the Yellowstone National Park in their shared attention to vanishing wildlife in the American West at the end of the nineteenth century. Environmental historians have noted the role of both institutions, particularly the efforts of taxidermist William Hornaday, who created a small zoo at the Smithsonian, and the founders of Yellowstone, but without pursuing in detail how their dynamic relationship led to a greater awareness of issues pertaining to extinction and conservation.
Smith traces the early collaboration of Spencer F. Baird, the museum’s first director, with western explorers, both civilian and military, from the 1850s into the 1870s. With their materials and those of state and other exhibitors at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876, Baird helped to persuade Congress to support a new National Museum on the mall in...