Today in History: National Park Service

Today in History–April 5–the Library of Congress features the National Park Service (NPS), which was established in 1916 thanks to testimonies in support submitted to Congress on April 5 and 6. The NPS started by supervising 40 national parks and monuments and now supervises nearly 500. Learn more by visiting the Today in History section, then click the links below to access primary sources and teaching resources related to the NPS and America’s national parks.

Primary source sets

• National Park Service
• National park images
• National Park posters
• See America posters
• National Park Service maps
• Maps related to the National parks
• National park books
• National park texts
• Contemporary federal legislation related to national parks
• National Park Service historical newspaper coverage
• National Parks historical newspaper coverage
• Historical newspaper articles about early park superintendent Charles Young
  • “A Colored Captain,” The Pacific Commercial Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands), 24 April 1901. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85047084/1901-04-24/ed-1/seq-13/
  • “Urges Purchase of Park Lands,” The San Francisco Call (San Francisco [Calif.]), 09 Nov. 1903. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1903-11-09/ed-1/seq-3/
  • “To Save the Big Trees,” Holbrook Argus (Holbrook, Ariz.), 21 Nov. 1903. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94051342/1903-11-21/ed-1/seq-2/
  • “Colored Officers Praised,” New-York Tribune (New York [N.Y.]), 27 Dec. 1903. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1903-12-27/ed-1/seq-4/
  • “List of Afro-American Officers with Rank and Yearly Pay,” The Gold Leaf (Henderson, N.C.), 03 Nov. 1910. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn91068402/1910-11-03/ed-1/seq-7/
  • “Captain Young Now a Major in U.S. Army,” The Nashville globe (Nashville, Tenn.), 01 March 1912. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86064259/1912-03-01/ed-1/seq-1/
• Historical newspaper articles about George (Melendez) Wright
• Displacement and Identity in America’s National Parks

PSN curated resource sets

• Acadia National Park
• Denali National Park
• Grand Canyon
• Grand Teton National Park
• Mount Rainier National Park
• Yellowstone National Park
• Yosemite
• Thomas Moran
• Conservation & Environment primary source collections & teaching resources

Featured Sources

• Camping at Mt. Rainier
• Glacier National Park
• Grand Teton National Park

Special collections

• Mapping the National Parks (collection)
• Acadia maps (special presentation)
• Grand Canyon maps (special presentation)
• Great Smoky Mountain maps (special presentation)
• Yellowstone maps (special presentation)
• National park image set
• National park virtual tours National Park Foundation

Films

• Coaches arriving at Mammoth Hot Springs (1899)
• Lower falls, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park (1899)
• Tourists going round Yellowstone Park (1899)

Oral histories

• Establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and famous visitors to the park
• Junglebrook Nature Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• Scarcity of national parks and forests on the Allegheny Plateau

Library blog posts

• Celebrating the National Park Service Centennial with Music In the Muse
• Content Matters: An Interview with Staff from the National Park Service The Signal
• Everglades National Park Established In Custodia Legis
• Exploring the National Parks in the Geography and Map Division Worlds Revealed
• The National Park Service Celebrates 100 Years In Custodia Legis
• National Parks versus Monuments versus Preserves In Custodia Legis
• Radar Imaging Yellowstone National Park in 1968 Worlds Revealed
• The Visual Wonders of Yellowstone National Park Picture This

Resources outside the Library

• National Park Service
• The National Parks: Shaping the System George Wright Society

Teaching resources

• Collection Connections: Mapping the National Parks activity ideas
• The Conservation Movement at a Crossroads: The Hetch Hetchy Controversy lesson plan
• Guided Primary Source Analysis: Grand Canyon Tourist Map
• National Parks KidCitizen K-5 episode with teacher’s guide