Think YouTube is just for content creators? This YouTube video now sits in an art museum (yes, really!)

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The first-ever YouTube video is now part of a display on the history of design at a London area art musuem

An old version of YouTube on a computer screen
(Image credit: SAMANTHA SIN / AFP via Getty Images)

The rise of social media platforms has coined the term “content creator” to create a distinction from traditional camera artists and creators working exclusively for social media – but an art museum in London has recently acquired an iconic YouTube video for an exhibit.

The London-based Victoria and Albert Museum, or V&A, recently announced the acquisition of “Me at the Zoo,” the first video ever to be posted to YouTube. The video is now on display as part of an exhibit, Design 1900-Now at the V&A South Kensington.

The 19-second video depicts the platform's founder, Jawed Karim, at the San Diego Zoo. The video, which has now exceeded 380 million views, marked the launch of what is now the most visited online video platform.

Turning something that exists only in digital format into part of a physical display wasn’t an easy feat. The museum spent part of the last 18 months working with YouTube’s User Experience team to build a display that mimics how the platform looked in December 2006 – the oldest code available from The Internet Archive.

The team at the museum worked to recreate what YouTube looked like in its infancy, down to the playback controls on the Adobe Flash Player. The team then incorporated the video file for ‘Me at the Zoo’ and even reconstructed ads that ran on YouTube between December 2006 and January 2007.

The team faced a number of challenges in the reconstruction, including the Adobe Flash Player no longer being supported by modern browsers. But after 18 months, the result is a dynamic display that changes on every visit. Yes, anyone can still watch the first-ever video online, but the exhibit brings back the look or early YouTube rather than surrounding the 20-year-old video with YouTube's modern look and tools.

While the display is part of an exhibit on the history of design, the inclusion of the first-ever YouTube video feels like a nod to the platform’s influence in design and video over the last two decades.

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Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary K. Grigonis
US Editor

With more than a decade of experience writing about cameras and technology, Hillary K. Grigonis leads the US coverage for Digital Camera World. Her work has appeared in Business Insider, Digital Trends, Pocket-lint, Rangefinder, The Phoblographer, and more. Her wedding and portrait photography favors a journalistic style. She’s a former Nikon shooter and a current Fujifilm user, but has tested a wide range of cameras and lenses across multiple brands. Hillary is also a licensed drone pilot.

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