Parks Modern Repository and Archive
The Parks Modern Repository and Archive preserves the broad Modern design legacy of the National Park Service and associated organizations. The collection consists of mid to late 20th century ephemera produced by the National Park Service, park-affiliated organizations, and limited commercial concerns.
Spanning fifty years (approximately 1945 - 1995), the majority of the collection includes such items as brochures, posters, guides, handbooks, books, photographs, planning documents, and pamphlets. Parks Modern is also a repository for relevant de-commissioned park exhibits and signage, select souvenir items, and other objects. In addition to NPS materials, the collection includes state park materials, and items produced for national parks worldwide. The collection currently holds over two thousand items.
While preservation is Park Modern’s primary mandate, collections items are available to designers and researchers on a limited basis. The goal of Parks Modern is to give the public full access to the collection by means of digital exhibits and, eventually, a searchable online database.
If you or your organization or park unit has materials it would like to donate to the archive for preservation, please contact us through the form on this website. You never know, those old files, or that dusty corner, or old box in the back of your closet might hold a small piece of our public lands history worth preserving!
Image of three vintage brochures, all a golden yellow color. On the far left, a small, simple leaflet with nothing on it but the word “gettysburg” all lower-case, going up the left side in bold black letters. In the middle, a medium size brochure featuring a stylish mother and daughter looking at a Teddybear cholla cactus, drawn in a midcentury style. At the top of the brochure in script letters it reads “Cholla Cactus Garden Trail” and at the bottom it reads “Joshua Tree National Monument”. On the far right is the smallest of the three, another leaflet. At the top it reads “New Germany State Park” and pictures a drawing of a black and white raccoon looking around a tree stump.