The Coming Age of Aesthetic Conservation

The creation of the National Park Service in 1916 formalized the government’s dual purpose of preserving natural scenery while providing public access. Under its first director, Stephen Mather, the Park Service launched the effective “See America” publicity campaign, which was designed to lure the largest audience ever to the nation’s parks. Mather also helped organize a major exhibition of works by Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Thomas Hill, and others at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. This show confirmed the role of artists in influencing public opinion of parklands.

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Under its first director, Stephen Mather, the Park Service launched the effective “See America” publicity campaign, which was designed to lure the largest audience ever to the nation’s parks.

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Together with the park service’s policy of allowing automobiles into the park, Mather’s publicity campaign made Yellowstone more popular than ever. Mushrooming visitation soon resulted in a very different experience than the one John Muir had envisioned, however. Many artists responded by toning down the drama of romanticism in their work. Others openly embraced Yellowstone’s new identity as America’s “pleasuring ground,” integrating tourists, stagecoaches, and buildings into their work. Early-20th-century paintings of Yellowstone thus often suggest the park’s increasingly broad appeal, as well as the tension between the lure of unspoiled land and the impact of the crowds that came to enjoy it.