The Legacy of Horace Albright
Participants in a training program at the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Horace M. Albright Training Center, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. The Albright Training Center is a primary training facility for Service-wide Employee Learning and Development.
Horace Albright helped found and served as the first assistant director of the National Park Service when it was established in 1916. He served as acting director from 1917 to 1919 while director Stephen Mather was absent with a severe illness. From 191 to 1929, Albright was superintendent of Yellowstone National Park (Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming). He became the second director of the National Park Service in 1929 and served until 1933 accomplishing the goals of expanding national park areas throughout the states east of the Mississippi River and introducing historic preservation into the National Park Service.
In April 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt agreed to Albright's request for the transfer to the Park Service of national monuments from the Agriculture Department and military parks from the War Department. He also was influential in the creation of Zion National Park (Utah) and the creation and expansion of Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming). Having accomplished his major goals, Albright resigned from the National Park Service in 1933 to become vice-president, and later president, of the United States Potash Company.
