One hundred years ago today, Woodrow Wilson signed the bill creating the National Park Service. While other nations do have national parks, no other nation has used the idea to also tell interpretatio
Above: Mary McLeod Bethune. The National Park Service offers tours of her home in Washington, D.C. Provocative and interesting essay from the National Parks and Conservation Association’s Alan S
Glenn Nelson challenges the National Park Service to do more to welcome minorities. He notes how very few visitors to national parks are people of color and the very strong disconnect between these ce
In December, Congress passed and President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act. Included in the bill was a bunch of new national parks. A couple of them were the traditional big nature
Because the National Park Service reflects the historical priorities of Americans over time, it’s not surprising that it is so lacking in sites interpreting Reconstruction, since the great growt
I am very happy to see that President Obama named five new national monuments yesterday. Two are dedicated to preserving public lands–the San Juan Islands in Washington and the Rio Grande Del No
I am quite happy that President Obama has created the César Chávez National Monument. Although we are in a moment of much needed Chávez revisionism that begins to take apart the hagiography that pl
There’s an effort to turn the site of the 1894 Pullman Strike into a national park site. You should support this. I have not yet discussed the Pullman Strike in a This Day in Labor History post,