The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has added a new piece to its collection commemorating the moment YouTube was born more than 20 years ago. The museum acquired the first video uploaded to the platform by co-founder Jawed Karim, along with a recreated web page from that era.
The 19-second clip, titled “Me at the zoo,” features elephants at the San Diego Zoo and was uploaded on April 23, 2005. The historic video shows a then-25-year-old Karim and has since amassed more than 382 million views and over 18 million likes.
The museum’s digital preservation team spent 18 months reconstructing the platform’s design and user experience as it appeared on Dec. 8, 2006.
The project, based on the earliest documented online appearance of YouTube, was carried out in collaboration with YouTube’s user experience team and London-based design studio oio.
Corinna Gardner, senior curator at the V&A, said the early YouTube fragment represents a significant moment in internet and digital design history. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan added that the recreation of an early viewing page allows the public to experience the beginning of a global cultural phenomenon.
The first YouTube work is now on display in the V&A South Kensington’s Design 1900-Now gallery. Details of the reconstruction process will be featured in a small exhibition at the V&A East Storehouse in Stratford.
