The National Park Service, or NPS, is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. The U.S. Congress made Yellowstone America’s first national park in 1872. In the years that followed, environmentalists including John Muir lobbied for wilderness preservation throughout the American West with the creation of several more national parks and monuments. President Woodrow Wilson established the National Park Service in 1916 to consolidate management of America’s federal parklands under one agency. The National Park Service today manages 84 million acres across all U.S. states and territories, and has served as a model for countries around the world.
Prior to the nineteenth century, most Europeans and Americans viewed nature solely as a resource for food, clothing and shelter. In Europe, early attempts at nature preservation centered upon the efforts of wealthy landowners to conserve trees for timber and wildlife for game hunting.
While America’s national parks drew upon earlier examples of European woodland preservation, they were a uniquely American idea rooted in democracy, philosophy and art.
Popular 19th-century writers, including transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman drew inspiration from nature, while artists of the era—including Thomas Cole, Asher Durand and Albert Bierstadt—depicted the sublime beauty of the American landscape. These writers and artists influenced the ideals of the American conservation movement. Continue reading from History
Did you know there are National Parks in every state? Learn more about parks in Connecticut , New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. How many will you visit or have already visited?
