The earliest known zoo-like collection was found at Hierakonpolis in Egypt, dated to about 3500 BC. Ancient rulers across Assyria, China and Babylon kept animals for display and power, and the Romans used them in arena games. Medieval menageries served royal prestige. The modern zoo emerged in the 19th century when the London Zoo opened in Regent's Park in 1828, designed for scientific study and then opened to the public in 1847. Its layout for a city crowd became the template for public zoos worldwide.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.