Steamy Angels and Vague Bears

When Horace Albright became the superintendent of Yellowstone in 1919, he continued the National Park Service’s campaign to make the park experience not only accessible but comfortable. In-park concessionaires and the nearby gateway communities of Livingston and Gardiner thrived throughout the 1920s, as the crowds of tourists continued to swell.

Even as they were drawn by Yellowstone’s reputation for unique and unspoiled scenery, artists of the 1920s and 1930s increasingly modified their visions of the park for consumption on a large scale. From the dashing brushwork of Birger Sandzén to the commercial work of Frederic Mizen, painters applied new aesthetics to Yellowstone during these decades, a reflection of its ever-growing public appeal.