Yellowstone and the Smithsonian

In Yellowstone and the Smithsonian: Centers of Wildlife Conservation, Diane Smith chronicles the relationship of the Smithsonian Institution and Yellowstone National Park, specifically the parallel conservation-driven missions of the two institutions in the formative first decades of Yellowstone’s history. The book reveals how early park history is inextricably entwined with both the artful, taxidermic exhibition of natural history in the National Museum, and the Smithsonian’s establishment and early development of the National Zoological Park, where “living specimens” of threatened fauna would be studied, conserved, and exhibited. With painstaking detail, the author recounts how the enshrinement of iconic western animals advanced the Smithsonian mission, while fundamentally shaping the early management of Yellowstone wildlife. As noted by other Yellowstone historians of this period, the story is shot full of irony and contradiction. Smith argues persuasively that in advancing its wildlife conservation and exchange programs, Smithsonian officials, abetted by U.S. Cavalry park superintendents, invariably crossed the “fine line between science and commerce” (p. 44). More obliquely, the author suggests the paradox inherent in late nineteenth century’s sudden obsession with—and inevitable commodification of—the protection of large, diminishing game animals such as the iconic North American bison, culled from a rapidly receding western “wilderness” now cleared of Indians. The fetishization of the last remaining “wild” bison in Yellowstone dramatically enlarged the value of the animal, both in the marketplace and the Smithsonian-led public realm.

Archaeology · Environmental ethics · Geography · National park · Wilderness · Wildlife · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · Ecology · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · History of Science and Medicine