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This sheet of 23 vinyl stickers reproduces a selection of Dorothy Waugh's Poster Stickers from 1936.
The posters Dorothy Waugh created for the National Park Service between 1934 and 1936 mark a turning point in American graphic design and advertising history. Previous posters for National Parks were mainly created by railroad companies, but Waugh advocated for the government to produce its own campaign with a modernist bent.
In 1936, Waugh designed 50 small “poster stickers” for the NPS. As the stickers generally depicted specific locations and subjects, their style was more realistic than the full-size posters of the campaign. Printed in very large runs, they were intended as souvenirs for those who visited the parks or requested them from the government. An untold number of Americans affixed them to letters, packages, and the like. The director of the NPS praised the stickers as offering a new way to “spread the gospel of the parks.”
Perhaps reflecting ambivalence about automobiles in the parks, one sticker shows just a glimpse of a tire. Although increased park access by car improved visitor numbers, preservationists considered the automobile, along with the necessary roads and park development, a curse.
Manufactured for Poster House by Busy Beaver Button Co. Sheet measures 10 x 8 inches. 23 individual stickers measuring approximately 2 x 1.6 inches each.