A YouTube video is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. 

Entitled "Me at the zoo", the film was first uploaded on April 23, 2005 and it is the first upload to YouTube made by one of the company's founders, Jawed Karim. 

Karim was filmed, for just 18 seconds, as he stood in front of the elephant enclosure at San Diego Zoo and expressed his enthusiasm for the animals. 

The V&A says: "The acquisition of the earliest available YouTube watch page featuring ‘Me at the zoo’, dated 8 December 2006, captures a significant moment in the history of the internet and web design – the shift from a read-only internet to one centred on user-generated multimedia content, social interaction and collaboration, otherwise known as Web 2.0."

YouTube was launched online in May 2005, and was initially intended to be a dating platform. But, it soon became more general than that, and now it is the second most visited website on the web and a central pillar of our culture. 

YouTube's first logo. 

While there has been significant evolution in the site, the first page still has elements that are recognisable today, including a logo that lasted surprisingly well in this fast-moving age. 

The page has been reconstructed from a version that was snapped on December 8, 2006, the oldest known version of the page to still exist. 

Alongside that is the original video file of Me at the zoo. And ads from the time. Of course. 

The page has been put together by V&A curators and conservators, YouTube’s User Experience team and design studio oio.

An emulator was needed to play the video. And, current tech was downgraded somewhat, with the use of browser extensions and other tech, to replicate the internet user experience of 20 years ago. 

The item is stored on a solid-state drive and the V&A say the intention is for it to run in perpetuity. 

They say: "The tech industry’s focus on growth and innovation gives it a pace that makes looking back and holding on to its history uncommon. This acquisition is an exciting opportunity to understand the rise of digital platforms and the history and design of the web. As technology continues to develop ever faster, the V&A aims to be a place for the understanding of how our designed world transforms our everyday and shapes the society of tomorrow."

You can see the page now at V&A South Kensington at the Design 1900–Now gallery and at the V&A East Storehouse where there is also behind-the-scenes material.