Aquarium

Lore & Background

The key idea behind the aquarium was fully worked out in 1850 by chemist Robert Warington. He showed that if you put aquatic plants in a water container, they produce enough oxygen to keep animals alive, as long as you do not add too many animals. The hobby took off in early Victorian England thanks to Philip Henry Gosse. He set up the first public aquarium at the London Zoo in 1853 and wrote the first guidebook on the subject in 1854.

Earlier, in 1832, Jeanne Villepreux-Power was the first person to build aquaria for scientific experiments with water creatures. In 1836, Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward suggested using his tanks for tropical animals, and in 1841 he did so, but only with plants and fake fish. In 1846, Anne Thynne kept stony corals and seaweed alive for nearly three years, earning credit for creating the first stable marine aquarium in London.

From a Liquor Store Counter to an Outdoor Empire

His dad, John A. Morris, a World War II veteran, had instilled in his son a deep love for the outdoors through years of family hunting and fishing trips. What started as a modest counter-side operation quickly grew as customers kept calling in for specialized gear even after they had moved away from the area. That single Ozarks location would eventually become the anchor for a nationwide retail network and a sprawling collection of resorts, museums, and marine brands.

Stores as Living Habitats

Every Bass Pro Shops location is designed to feel less like a retail store and more like stepping into a natural landscape. The company operates five distinct store formats—Outdoor World, Outpost, Stick Marsh Outpost, Sportsman's Center, and White River Outpost—each carrying its own thematic identity. Outpost stores lean into a rustic cabin aesthetic with local antiques and trophy mounts. Fourteen locations feature full replica natural-habitat displays crafted by TreeScapes & PlantWorks.

A Decade of High-Stakes Acquisitions

Bass Pro Shops has repeatedly used bold acquisitions to reshape the outdoor retail landscape.

Conservation, Community, and Controversy

Bass Pro Shops has woven conservation and civic support into its corporate identity. The company funds conservation initiatives, backs organizations serving U.S. Armed Forces members and veterans, and promotes outdoor education and recreation for young people. Yet the company's public generosity has not gone unchallenged. This tension between the brand's conservation-minded image and its corporate-scale financial dealings remains one of the most debated aspects of the company's public profile.

Reader's Guide

Small aquariums are kept in the home by hobbyists. There are large public aquariums in many cities. Public aquariums keep fish and other aquatic animals in large tanks.

A large aquarium may have otters, dolphins, sharks, penguins, seals, and whales. Many aquarium tanks also have plants. An aquarist owns fish or maintains an aquarium, typically constructed of glass or high-strength acrylic.

Aquaria with flat walls are known as fish tanks or simply tanks, while those with rounded walls are known as fish bowls. Size can range from a small glass bowl, a few liters in volume, to immense public aquaria of thousands of liters. Specialized equipment maintains appropriate water quality and other characteristics suitable for the aquarium's residents.