The national parks are more popular than ever, with 2019 seeing over 90 million visits for the first time ever. There aren’t many things in the country that are as universally loved as visiting national parks. One of the reasons that our retro national park posters are the most popular items on the website is that they make fantastic gifts. When choosing wall art for a room, it can be difficult to find something that matches and also says something about you – our vintage national park posters come in a whole range of colors to match any decor and remind us of the memories that we made in the parks.
The original WPA national park posters were created by the Works Projects Administration of the 1930s. After the Wall Street crash of 1929, America experienced unprecedented levels of unemployment, reaching as high as 25% of the population. The Civilian Conservation Corps was created to provide employment for some of the young men who found themselves unable to find other work. The contribution of the CCC to the national parks is immeasurable – From working on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Walter’s Wiggles on the trail to Angels Landing, and thousands of trails and campgrounds throughout the national park system. To publicize the newly developed parks, the WPA was tasked with creating promotional posters to inspire Americans to visit.
Only 13 national parks were featured on the 14 posters that were created (Yellowstone was featured twice). A few of these have been lost forever and those that remain are now preserved forever in the Library of Congress. Since vintage national park posters don’t exist for most of the modern parks, National Parks Partnership is working to build a collection of WPA national park posters that you can buy and display in your home to show your love for the parks you love. As with all National Parks Partnership products – all posters are printed in the USA and all profits are donated to national park charities.
