100 Years of Designing for U.S. National Parks

From the beginning, the history of America’s national parks has been indelibly linked to images. In the 1870s, Thomas Moran painted dramatic views of Yellowstone, prompting Congress to make it the country’s first national park; some 50 years later, Ansel Adams’s photos of Kings Canyon, California, led to the protection of that remote region of the Sierra Nevada. Since then, park maps and brochures have become essential in more quotidian ways—helping visitors navigate the premises, providing valuable safety information, and serving as beloved souvenirs.

The new book Parks ($55; preorders start shipping on September 23) collects a century’s worth of paper National Park Service ephemera, illustrating the outsized role these items have played in people’s experiences of the park system. Viewed together, they also serve as a quirky tour through the past century of American graphic design.