OH MAN this is my JAM you guys! Let me interpret. *puts on ranger hat*
So there were 14 original National Park posters- Bandelier, Fort Marion, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Great Smoky Mountains, Lassen, Mount Rainier, Petrified Forest, Wind Cave, Yellowstone (Old Faithful), Yellowstone (Lower Falls), Yosemite, and Zion- plus a bunch “See America” posters featuring places like Arches and Carlsbad Caverns, and a second, unfinished design for Glacier National Park.
Of the images above, the Zion, Carlsbad Caverns, and Yellowstone are all original WPA designs (though Zion’s color balance is a bit wacky).
The Yosemite, Acadia, and Algonquin designs are all contemporary and digital- the biggest tells are vector artifacts, anachronistic NPS seals, modern fonts (rather than hand-drawn lettering), and, in the case of the Algonquin park poster, parks that aren’t within the purview of the WPA. :) For credit’s sake, the Acadia poster is by Steve Thomas, and the Algonquin poster is by Cameron Stevens.
The Badlands poster, however, is contemporary and traditional- it’s a screen print done by the artist (and ex-Ranger!) Doug Leen, who runs Ranger of the Lost Art. I am obsessed with this guy. Doug has spent twenty years researching and recreating the original WPA posters (a number of them are only known from crude and faded B&W photos, so the individual screens had to be redrawn by hand), and he’s continued on to design commissioned posters for other parks in the traditional WPA style:
…I adore his work because of how carefully he mimics the original style, buuut it also means that his stuff is constantly stolen and passed off as original WPA work! Despite the fact that Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park wasn’t know as such until, y’know, 1960. :)
Go check out his site, read up on the history of the whole project, buy some posters- all of Doug’s work has the NPS stamp of approval, so I can guarantee that no one is recreating these posters with the same amount of fastidiousness and care. :)
*takes off ranger hat*
-C
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