Exploring the National Parks in Old Maps and Photos

The US National Park system owes its creation to an act of Congress in 1872 conferring that over 2 million acres in Wyoming and Montana Territories near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River be "set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." Congress was convinced to do so by the report of the expedition of F. V. Hayden in 1871 to explore the region, which included extensive maps made by Hayden, as well as photographs by William Henry Jackson and paintings by Thomas Moran. The stunning visual beauty brought back by the expedition and its artists initiated what was to become America's Best Idea.
William Henry Jackson would later travel throughout the country, focusing especially on photographing landscapes and communities of the western United States. He was one of the first to photograph the west and now is considered the finest American landscape photographer of the nineteenth century. His photographs capture the beauty of American wilderness at the time when the National Park system was established.
Hayden's maps of the Yellowstone region were the first to chart the details and geologic features of the new National Park. Later maps also record the way the parks were developed, including proposals for construction that never came. For example, a proposal for eight new hotels and a rail line inside Yellowstone is detailed on one 1900 map. Some of the hotels were ultimately built (the many great lodges in Yellowstone), but the rail line never was. Other maps show how park boundaries have changed over time. A 1911 map of Mt. Desert Island in Maine shows how some of the land was already set aside as public reservation, but after Acadia National Park joined the park system in 1916 its boundaries were significantly extended to encompass most of the island.
These early maps and photographs show the history of the national parks in a direct and distinctive way. They show the progress of the development and preservation of America's greatest wilderness areas.