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Posted In April 12, 2012

Inside the District jail during Christmas around 1920 (Library of Congress)
The Last Execution by Hanging in the District: The Tale of Herbert Copeland
Learn the story of Herbert Copeland, the last person to be executed by hanging in the District. Copeland was a cop killer who had murdered three policemen in cold blood in 1918. He was captured and eventually hanged in 1925, leaving behind a confession with details of his escape and other unsolved murders.
Alligators in their enclosure in the original Animal House, also known as the Carnivora House, which opened in 1892 and was the first permanent building at the National Zoological Park. The alligators are housed in the "temporary" wooden wing of the structure (Smithsonian)
Proposed National Zoo in Rock Creek Park
We are a great nation and Americans in the 1880s were proud of their rapidly growing and dominant country. But how can you truly be a great nation without a national zoo to show off all the wonderful creatures that roam your lands, as well as those of foreign lands? Not only that, how will you help preserve the species that were being decimated by the rapid westward expansion and industrial progress? A group of school children viewing the first bison at the National Zoological Park in 1899. Photograph...

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