This Land Is Your Land: Parks and Public Spaces

Reconstruction

Harry Hampton With the Bald Cypress Tree That Was Later Named for Him.

Photograph of Harry Hampton, first major advocate who first started writing and talking on creating the Congaree preserve in the 1950s

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The idea of setting aside green spaces as parks is not a recent idea, but in the second half of the 19th century the idea of creating and protecting some areas of the country as places that could be preserved on a grander scale expanded into something bigger. In the 20th century, the policies and management of these protected areas inspired a nation while at the same time helping to set a foundation for parks around the world.
What started off as a landscape turned into a place where roads, visitor centers, research centers, and other facilities were needed to maintain the integrity of these areas. The creation of the parks was not based just on the physical layout, but the political and managerial aspects as well that were need to decide what land the parks would maintain and how that would be done on such a large scale.

Building the Parks

Interpretation of Parks

Landscapes

Protecting the Parks

Stewards of the Parks

Wildlife and People

Letter from Ansel Adams to the superintendent of Yosemite National Park. 

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Celebrated American landscape photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams was a lifelong advocate for his country’s national parks.  His dramatic photographs and passionate correspondence influenced the preservation of numerous wilderness areas.  Although Adams supported balanced growth within the parks, he emphasized what he called the spiritual-emotional aspects of parks and wilderness areas and repeatedly opposed excessive tourism, over development and private concessionaires.  
A year after Adams’ death in 1984, an 11,760-foot peak on the edge of Yosemite National Park (California) was named Mount Ansel Adams.
Clemson University Special Collections NPS Director George B. Hartzog Jr. Papers