Kohorn reveals National Park Service graphic design roots in West Virginia lab

Long before the National Park Service became a master of brand identity, its first foray into public graphics served a purely functional purpose. Starting around 1918, the service issued windshield stickers as proof of fee payment. These weren't intended as collectibles, yet they sparked the first wave of "park fever" among visitors. This enthusiasm created a literal safety hazard; drivers plastered their windshields with so many large permits that they obscured their field of vision.

Archivist Eleanore Kohorn explains that the agency responded by shrinking the stickers progressively until 1940, when the practice finally ceased due to media pressure. These early artifacts offer a window into a transitional era of American travel. On the reverse side of these stickers, rangers printed safety regulations, including the vital reminder that horse-drawn vehicles maintained the right of way over the new, disruptive automobile.

Dorothy Waugh and the first self-promotion campaign

In 1934, the National Park Service shifted from passive administration to active self-promotion. They hired Dorothy Waugh, a landscape architect and eventual children's book illustrator, to design a series of six travel posters. Before this, park advertising was the domain of railroad and automobile companies looking to sell tickets and gasoline.

Waugh’s work represents a milestone in hand-crafted design. Operating before the era of mass-produced silk screens, she utilized lithography to create bold, minimalist layouts. Her posters often featured only one or two colors, requiring a sophisticated eye for composition and typography. She hand-cut her fonts, creating a textual refinement that remains striking nearly a century later. This era also saw Dorothy Waugh creating blueprints for the Civilian Conservation Corps, standardizing the rustic architectural style now synonymous with the parks.

WPA silk screens and the hunt for lost paper

The iconic posters most recognized today emerged from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1938 and 1941. Unlike the general travel themes of the Dorothy Waugh series, these used specific iconography—like the Old Faithful geyser—to draw visitors to individual locations. Produced at the Western Museum Lab in Berkeley, California, these were printed in batches of approximately 100.

Because these posters were ephemeral objects intended for bus stations and outdoor display, very few survived the elements. Some were even repurposed as file dividers or plant presses. Eleanore Kohorn recently discovered a rare Bandelier National Monument poster used as a makeshift book cover for a piece of legislation, preserving its vibrant colors away from destructive light. Today, while only 14 original designs for 13 parks are confirmed, their influence persists through modern replicas that have cemented this aesthetic as the definitive visual language of the American wilderness.