“100 Years of America’s National Park Service: Preserve, Enjoy, Inspire” (Washington D.C., U.S.A.)

 

"100 Years of America's National Park Service: Preserve, Enjoy, Inspire"

Carlsbad Caverns National Park
(New Mexico)

The National Park Service (NPS), joined by the Smithsonian Institution, celebrated the centennial of America’s national parks with “100 Years of America’s National Park Service: Preserve, Enjoy, Inspire,” a new photography exhibition that opened last August 4, 2016 at the Second Floor of the National Museum of Natural History. 

Here, visitors to the exhibition learn about connections, past and present, between the Smithsonian Institution and the NPS, showing how the Smithsonian’s surveys and collections played a role in creating new national parks, including Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho), the world’s first national park created in 1872. 

Check out “National Museum of Natural History”

 

Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio)

Mount Rushmore
National Memorial
(South Dakota)

The exhibition also presents ongoing efforts, by Smithsonian Institution researchers, to study the biological diversity of the national parks, such as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee and North Carolina). 

The 1,820 sq. ft. exhibition, featuring more than 60 stunning images of America’s national parks by award-winning photographers, showcased the majesty, diversity, and importance of America's national parks where wildlife, culture, history and people come together. 

It also shares stories of how the National Museum of Natural History and the NPS have collaborated, throughout their shared histories, to preserve America’s cherished natural and cultural heritage sites and treasures for future generations to experience forever. 

 

Badlands National Park (North Dakota)

San Antonio Missions
National Historical Park
(Texas)

The photographs present stories and snapshots from 53 national parks, including national monuments, historic sites, battlefields and picturesque natural scenes from lake shores and seashores to trails and preserves where both wildlife and people come together, from the Eastern Seaboard to the West Coast, extending to the far reaches of Hawaii and Alaska.  

The 50 images in the exhibition include wall-mounted photos by 18 award-winning photographers, including 15 panoramas by nature photographer Stan Jorstad and 24 images by Carol M. Highsmith, a photographer of America’s cultural and natural heritage, showing breath-taking views of popular parks like Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming, Montana and Idaho), Yosemite National Park (California), Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee and North Carolina), Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming) and Glacier National Park (Montana).

 

Left - Quinault - Olympic National Park (Washington)

Gateway Arch
National Park (Missouri)

Alongside the mounted exhibition images, a slideshow of 60 NPS-visitor-submitted photos will be on view. Five National Park Service videos explore ways that different visitors, from families to Junior Rangers and to researchers, use and explore parks year-round. Also on display are several museum specimens and objects collected from park sites during modern and historic Smithsonian surveys, expeditions, excavations and studies. The temporary exhibit runs until August 14, 2017. 

America’s National Parks at 100, a new documentary which aired on the Smithsonian Channel last August 28, 2016 (8 PM EDT/PDT), tells the story of how a radical idea of saving these incredible places has become an enduring mission shaped by the creativity, resourcefulness and passion of individual Americans. 

The Smithsonian Channel’s documentary also builds on the stories in the exhibition with vignettes from the founding of America’s first national parks to their modern-day uses for recreation and science.  The film also explores how Smithsonian scientists are actively deepening, through various national parks today, the knowledge of America’s historical, cultural and natural heritage stewarded.

 

Map of the U.S.A. showing locations of National Parks

100 Years of America's National Park Service: Preserve, Enjoy, Inspire: 2/F, Special Exhibits Gallery, Natural History Museum, 10th and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC.