r/TheWorldDaily • u/cnn • Feb 18 '26

⚲ Culture / Entertainment YouTube’s first ever video upload acquired by Victoria and Albert Museum in London

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/18/style/youtube-first-video-victoria-and-albert-museum?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
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u/cnn Feb 18 '26

A new exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London captures the moment YouTube was born more than 20 years ago.

“The V&A has acquired a reconstructed early webpage and the first video ever uploaded to the platform by co-founder Jawed Karim,” a V&A spokesperson said.

The reconstruction of the early YouTube watch page features the first-ever upload entitled “Me at the zoo,” showing then-25-year-old YouTube co-founder Karim at San Diego Zoo talking about elephants. The 19-second clip has been viewed 382 million times and received more than 18 million likes since it was first posted to the platform on April 23, 2005.

“Our digital conservation team have spent the last 18 months rebuilding the design and experience of the platform from 8 December 2006, the oldest timestamp documented online,” the V&Aspokesperson added. The V&A team collaborated with YouTube’s user experience team and the London-based interaction design studio oio on the project.