On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation that created the National Park Service.
However, the origins of national parks extend further back into our country’s history. The very first national park, Yellowstone in Wyoming, was created by Congress in 1872.
Philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson extolled the beauty of Yosemite’s natural treasures and visited there with John Muir. Together, these scholars, poets, artists, and philosophers provided the public support for the first national park, influenced President Theodore Roosevelt, and set the stage for the creation of the National Park Service.
In 1916, the number of parks and monuments managed within the Department of the Interior was exploding. During his administration, 1901–1909, President Theodore Roosevelt added five new parks, 18 national monuments, four national game refuges, and 51 bird sanctuaries.
The National Archives holds the historic records of the National Park Service in Record Group 79. This collection includes over 32,000 maps and charts, 46,000 architectural and engineering drawings, 56,000 still pictures, and thousands of cubic feet of administrative records. Most of these records are kept at College Park, Maryland; however, records are also held at National Archives locations in Atlanta, Denver, Chicago, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Seattle, Waltham, MA, and Riverside and San Bruno, CA.
