The WPA & the Golden Age · See America / The Parks
Ranger Naturalist Service, Yellowstone — WPA Federal Art Project, c.1938
C. Don Powell · WPA Federal Art Project silkscreen, National Park Service, 1938
What it is
A silkscreened invitation to the people’s park, made by artists on the public payroll in the middle of the Depression.
Why it matters
The WPA poster division turned silkscreen into a fine-art print medium at national scale — art for everyone, about places that belong to everyone.
What to notice
The flat, confident inks; the registration of a handful of screens doing the work of a painting.
The parks belonged to everyone. So did the art.
Provenance
- School
- WPA — Federal Art Project (United States)
- Designer
- C. Don Powell
- Printer / house
- WPA Federal Art Project silkscreen shop
- Format
- Travel poster
- Poster published
- WPA Federal Art Project silkscreen, National Park Service, 1938
- Source
- Library of Congress (via Wikimedia Commons mirror) · LC-DIG-ppmsca-13399 (LCCN 2007676133)
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government program work (WPA Federal Art Project), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-17. LoC’s own item page blocks automated fetches (403 WAF) — confirmed instead via the Wikimedia Commons mirror, which cites the same LCCN 2007676133 / ppmsca.13399 record. Registrar-awareness note only; does not block CLEAR.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 24x36" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
