MUST-SEE history photos: When the Dayton Art Institute had its own zoo

The Dayton Art Institute needed a game-changing idea in the 1930s to draw people to the museum during tough times.

The result: swans, peacocks, monkeys and deer.

Here are three things you should know about the long-forgotten zoo at the art institute.

1. Come for the monkey, stay for the art. Crowds gathered around a cage in a museum gallery to watch the antics of Skipper the monkey, and children watched fish swim in an indoor pond surrounded by colorful birds.

2. It was called 'Dayton's Living Room'. The exhibits featured a home-like atmosphere with comfortable seating, soft lighting and music.

3. A wide variety of animals. Exotic Demoiselle cranes, toucans, swans and peacocks roamed outdoors among the statuary and swam in a pool. Inside gold and blue cockatoos perched on branches next to Asian silk artwork and a macaw named "Old Mac," who lived in the Chinese Temple, always had a greeting for visitors.

» READ MORE: The Dayton museum history you didn’t know: When there was a zoo at the art institute

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