On Thursday, September 29 at 7pm, celebrate the 150th anniversary of the passage of the 14th Amendment with a look at how it defines U.S. citizenship, its connection to America’s “Second Founding” (the passage of the Reconstruction amendments), and the interpretation of these topics at National Park Service sites.
This free public program features Rep. James Clyburn (SC) as the keynote speaker. Elizabeth Wydra will moderate a discussion with Michael Allen, National Park Service Southeast Region Community Planning Specialist; Turkiya L. Lowe, National Park Service Southeast Region Chief Historian; and Northwestern University Professor Kate Masur.
A Landscape of Change: Cape Hatteras Light Station
Twenty years ago, in the summer of 1999, the Cape Hatteras Light Station was moved 2,900 feet from the spot where it had stood since 1870.
As the natural process of shoreline erosion transformed this dynamic coastal environment, the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States now stood dangerously close to the ocean’s edge.
The remarkable undertaking including efforts to protect the structures, maintain the coastal setting of the original site, and preserve the original orientation to the shoreline and spatial arrangement of historic structures in the landscape.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
- 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution
Convention Days at Women’s Rights National Historical Park
The year 2020 will mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.
Early women’s rights activists dedicated years, and in some cases most of their lives, advocating for the right to vote. Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York commemorates one of the earliest women suffrage movements in United States history. It was here the first Women’s Rights Convention took place in 1848, attracting nearly 300 men and women to debate and exchange ideas regarding the social, civil, and moral rights of women.
The park tells the story of this event through a variety of sites including Wesleyan Chapel, where the convention was held, as well as the homes of renowned women rights activists Jane Hunt, Mary Ann M'Clintock, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who launched the women’s rights reform movement. They contributed to the creation of the Declaration of Sentiments, which proclaimed that “all men and women are created equal.”
If you find yourself in Seneca Falls this weekend, the park is hosting Convention Days on July 19-21, 2019.
The event is a unique opportunity learn about the early days of the women’s rights movement and the factors that impacted its development. Not-to-miss events include ranger-guided tours, reenactments of the Declaration of Sentiments speech, and the opportunity to meet Coline Jenkins, great-great granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who will present the keynote address!
“My plastic water bucket dripping a bit so I mixed up a little epoxy, which is the one item more than anything else that holds ‘One Man’s Wilderness’ together.”
Richard “Dick” Proenneke built his cabin on the shore of Upper Twin Lake during the summers of 1967 and 1968. While it wasn’t the first or the largest cabin ever to be constructed in the Alaskan Bush, it stands out for its remarkable craftsmanship and for his documentation of the construction process.
Richard Proenneke at Snipe Lake filming movie clips in 1975. He and his brother Raymond flew there in the J3 Cub. (Photo courtesy of Raymond Proenneke, from NPS / Lake Clark National Park & Preserve website).
Proenneke built an elevated log cache, a combined woodshed/outhouse, and constructed the stone fireplace in the cabin by hand. His building style responded to the unique area and was intended to be both aesthetically appealing and functional for year-round living at Upper Twin Lake.
Proenneke lived in the cabin for 30 years without electricity, running water, a telephone, or other modern conveniences. Despite his remote location and fierce independence, he did not live removed from society. Proenneke maintained friendships, wrote letters, and interacted with pilots, fishermen, neighbors, and park rangers.
He chronicled his experiences and observations at Twin Lakes through correspondence, annotated calendars and maps, films, and journals. He always tacked a pin in a map before he would set out hiking, the marker showing where he intended to go and the holes across the map’s surface telling of past destinations.
Proenneke used the elevated cache to store various goods, including flour, candy, clothing, filming equipment, and aircraft parts (NPS).
Richard Proenneke was also intimately connected to his natural surroundings. As a result of his observations and advocacy, he became well known during the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) debate of the 1970s, inspiring several books and films and encouraging public support for wild lands in Alaska.
A strong proponent of preservation of the Twin Lakes-Lake Clark country, he gradually came to support the establishment of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. He became a volunteer with the park, helping NPS personnel to monitor weather, collect botanical specimens, assist with aerial wildlife counts, and coordinate float plane pickups between rangers and visitors.
Icicles frame a view of the mountains and lake visible from Richard Proenneke’s cabin (NPS).
Dick Proenneke kept a journal from his first visit to Twin Lakes in 1962. The publication of some of those journals in 1973 as One Man’s Wilderness (edited by Sam Keith) was largely responsible for bringing wider public recognition to Proenneke and Twin Lakes. Eventually, additional journals were published and documentary profiles were created using Proenneke’s own film footage, showing his relationship to the landscape.
In 2000, he and his brother, Raymond, donated all his journals to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve.
Proenneke’s voice was influential in shaping the preservation of wilderness in Alaska. His words and films reflect his pragmatism and care for this place and profoundly shaped public awareness of the values of Alaska’s wilderness. Richard Proenneke died in 2003, but the values of wilderness preservation and resource protection that he embodied live on through his journal entries and in the features of the cultural landscape.
Learn More
To find journals, video, landscape details, and inspiration from Dick Proenneke, start here at the Lake Clark National Park & Preserve website: Richard L Proenneke
Each spring, lilacs bloom on the hedges surrounding Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site (NPS).
This site preserves an elegant house which served as headquarters for General George Washington during the Siege of Boston and as the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807 -1882), one of the most famous American poets of the 1800s. For 45 years, Longfellow lived here with his family in the Georgian style mansion, looking out upon picturesque estate grounds that included a formal garden, woodland walk, lilacs, elm trees at the front of the house, a view to the Charles River, and outbuildings like the carriage house.
River! that in silence windest Through the meadows, bright and free, Till at length thy rest thou findest In the bosom of the sea! Four long years of mingled feeling, Half in rest, and half in strife, I have seen thy waters stealing Onward, like the stream of life. Thou hast taught me, Silent River! Many a lesson, deep and long; Thou hast been a generous giver; I can give thee but a song. Oft in sadness and in illness, I have watched thy current glide, Till the beauty of its stillness Overflowed me, like a tide.
– excerpt from “To the River Charles” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in Ballads and Other Poems(1842)
Longfellow and his daughter, Alice, shared an interest in landscape architecture, represented by the formal grounds, including a garden on the northeast end of the property which they carefully designed over time. Longfellow imported a variety of exotic evergreen trees from as far as the Himalayas, Northern Europe, and Oregon with help from renowned botanist Asa Gray.
In 1847, he sought the assistance of landscape architect Richard Dolben to create a new designed garden. Following Longfellow’s death, the formal garden was renovated by his daughter to its current Colonial Revival layout in 1904-05 and 1925.
In 2005-06, the garden was restored based on historical documentation in the site’s archives, largely based on the earlier 1925 rehabilitation by noted landscape architect Ellen Shipman. A large European linden stands in the east lawn toward the rear of the house, where this garden remains on the footprint of the original 1847 design.
From the time that he first starting renting two rooms on the house’s second floor, the letters and journals of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow expressed that the history and character of the grounds were a source of both pleasure and inspiration for him.
In one journal entry, he writes, “How glorious these Spring mornings are! I sit by an open window and inhale the pure morning air, and feel how delightful it is to live! Peach, pear and cherry trees are all in blossom together in the garden.” [1]
Later, in an 1843 letter to his father, Longfellow described the past and future of the landscape:
We have purchased a mansion here, built before the Revolution, and occupied by Washington as his Headquarters when the American Army was at Cambridge. It is a fine old house and I have a strong attachment from having lived in it since I first came to Cambridge. With it are five acres of land. The Charles River winds through the meadows in front and in the rear I yesterday planted an avenue of Linden trees, which already begin to be ten or twelve feet high. I have also planted some acorns and the oaks grow for a thousand years, you may imagine a whole line of little Longfellows, like the shadowy monarchs of Macbeth, walking under their branches for countless generations, “to the crack of doom,” all blessing the men who planted the oaks.[2]
South facade of Longfellow House taken from outside fence on Brattle Street, 1910 (National Park Service, Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters, Archives Number: 3008-1-1-17).
Longfellow Summer Festival
If you find yourself in Cambridge on a summer day, celebrate the history of the cultural landscape and contemporary poets and creators at the annual Longfellow Summer Festival. The festival, a tradition nearly as old as the park itself, brings music and poetry alive at the Longfellow House on Sunday afternoons through August.
*Thanks to the Longfellow House - Washington’s Headquarters NHS and others for help preparing this story!*
[1]Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Journals, Cambridge, May 20, 1838, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, as cited by Evans in Cultural Landscape Report for Longfellow National Historic Site, Volume 1: Site History and Existing Conditions, 1993, 33.
[2] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to Ferdinand Freiligrath, November 24, 1843, as cited by Luzader in Historic Structures Report, Longfellow House: Historical Data, 1974, 23.
This month, we are celebrating a few of the authors, journalists, and poets associated with places that we now know as part of the National Park System. The NPS helps to preserve the legacy and perspective of writers through park cultural landscapes, allowing us to envision the places in which their words were imagined.
Some of these written expressions are our first introduction to a place, leading us to it or reflecting the historic character of a park cultural landscape. Others reveal the author’s unique relationship to those surroundings. Sometimes, the landscape acts as the entryway to discover the writing, giving dimension to the words.
Whether you are planning summer reading or a summer road trip, we hope you find new places to explore in our landscapes of literature mini-series.
Follow along, catch up, or add you own favorites with #literarylandscapes.
Located in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Stonewall National Monument is a National Park Service site dedicated to a key turning point in the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer civil rights movement.
On June 28, 1969, patrons, employees, and police clashed during a raid on the Stonewall Inn. The confrontation spread into the neighboring streets and adjacent Christopher Park. The days-long uprising marked a significant moment in the struggle for LGBTQ rights, providing momentum for the movement well beyond the streets of New York City. Within two years, gay liberation groups were established in almost every major city across the U.S.
It’s already the end of May, which means that Preservation Month is coming to a close. Here are just a few ways to continue exploring cultural landscape preservation in the National Park Service:
You can also find access to the Integrated Resource Management Applications (IRMA) Portal there, an NPS-wide repository for documents, publications, and data sets related to natural and cultural resources of the National Park Service. The cultural landscape documents in this growing collection contain history, analysis, and treatment recommendations to support the management of cultural landscapes.
These videos highlight preservation projects in various park cultural landscapes, revealing how management documents (like Cultural Landscape Reports) guide preservation treatment that can impact the experience of historic places.
“The environment after all is where we all meet; where we all have a mutual interest; it is the one thing all of us share. It is not only a mirror of ourselves, but a focusing lens on what we can become.”
- Lady Bird Johnson, “Speech at Yale University,” (New Haven, Connecticut, October 9, 1967).
As a champion of conservation efforts and environmental causes, Lady Bird Johnson initiated the Beautification Project to improve the quality of life for residents of Washington, D.C. through the renewal and improvement of public spaces. The environmental and aesthetic improvements of Beautification included tree-lined avenues, floral displays, design guidelines, improvements to pedestrian circulation, renovation of historic buildings, and litter clean-up.
Beautification Luncheon. Foreground L-R: Sec. Stewart Udall, Lady Bird Johnson, Laurance Rockefeller looking at an architectural model of the Washington DC Mall area during a Beautification Luncheon in the White House State Dining Room. The 1967 luncheon in part discussed proposed changes to the Mall (Robert Knudsen, LBJ Library, White House Photo Office collection (C5209-33).
Beautification was far more complex than a garden club project.
According to Johnson, “Though the word beautification makes the concept sound merely cosmetic, it involves much more: clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas. To me…beautification means our total concern for the physical and human quality we pass on to our children and the future.”
Lady Bird Johnson and two young people standing among blooming white azaleas during a Beautification Tour of Washington, D.C. (Robert Knudsen, LBJ Library, C1754-25).
Lady Bird Johnson selected her adopted hometown of Washington, D.C. as the pilot city to show the nation how Beautification could enhance the overall quality of life. The city afforded Johnson the perfect opportunity to showcase the potential of the program. The prominence of Washington, D.C. garnered national visibility to highlight the progress of the effort.
“The Story of Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson’s Beautification Program” is from the LBJ Library moving picture collection created by the White House Naval Photographic Unit, aka the Navy Films. The films consist of monthly reports on the activities of President and Lady Bird Johnson from 1963-1969. This edited content is from the LBJ Library audiovisual archives.
Lady Bird Johnson formed a coalition of both public and private entities, involving Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, local officials, planners, landscape architects, citizens, and school groups.
Spring brings color to the trees on the East Potomac Golf Course at Hains Point in Washington, D.C. (NPS Photo).
Lady Bird’s legacy is still evident in Washington, D.C. today.
Daffodil drifts soften the hillsides of the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, as well as the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Lady Bird Johnson Park. Cherry trees line the road of Hains Point, sprays of blossoms frame views in the monumental core, and the Floral Library near the Washington Monument bursts with color in the springtime. Street trees shade avenues throughout the city, and efforts to clean the city’s waterways have continued into the present.
Cabrillo National Monument was established in 1913 to commemorate explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who led a European expedition to the west coast of what is now the United States. A statue of Cabrillo gazes out over the San Diego Bay, where his sails arrived ashore on September 28, 1542.
The historic importance of Cabrillo National Monument is associated with multiple resources and periods of time.
Before it became part of the National Park System, it was part of Fort Rosecrans, the headquarters of the WWII harbor defenses of San Diego. Several lighthouses have shone from this shoreline location, aiding navigation and attracting visitors.
More recently, the Cabrillo National Monument Visitor Center Historic District landscape is associated with the modern design principles of the NPS Mission 66 program.
Mission 66
Mission 66 was a period of profoundly new design ideas in national parks, expressed through a system-wide program of development. In response to the increasing crowds and automobile traffic of the 1950s, and in preparation for the 50th anniversary of the NPS in 1966, the agency embarked on a plan to overhaul park facilities with an emphasis on improving roads and parking, visitor facilities, and administration, housing areas, and concessionaire areas.
The Cabrillo National Monument was one of the parks that would undergo extensive changes during Mission 66, a critical factor in the development of the site into a modern and fully accessible park. Between 1963 and 67, the Mission 66 master plan added a new entrance road, parking areas, and a Visitor Center with an interior courtyard and series of interconnected indoor and outdoor landscape spaces. It is an example of how Mission 66-era development used concepts associated with modernism in landscape architecture, expressed in a southern California coastal context.
Walkway to the Cabrillo statue at the Cabrillo National Monument Visitor Center Historic District landscape (NPS Photo).
More about the Cabrillo National Monument Visitor Center Historic District landscape
On April 9, 1865, the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia in the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia signaled the end of the Civil War. The landscape at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park marks the beginning of the country’s transition to peace and reunification following four years of war. The rural landscape is also significant in areas of architecture and conservation.
In commemoration of the 154th Anniversary of Lee’s surrender to Grant, learn more about the park’s cultural landscape through a new video and the recently published Cultural Landscape Report:
We can almost smell summertime in the latest video from the NPS Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation.
The short video celebrates the agricultural landscape of Lindenwold, President Martin Van Buren’s home and farm, and encourages viewers to learn more about the landscape’s past, present, and future through the lens of the recently published report “Agricultural Management Guidelines for the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site.”
Cover of the management document for the agricultural landscape at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site (NPS Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation).
The Designing the Parks program is not your typical internship.
Each year since 2013, the program has introduced a cohort of college students and recent graduates to National Park Service design and planning professions through projects related to cultural landscape stewardship.
In the internships, hosted by the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation and made possible by partner organizations, each participant focuses on an in-depth project that directly engages with a national park unit.
Designing the Parks
Our most recent article highlights the Designing the Parks program, including recent projects and partner organizations: Designing the Parks: Learning in Action
Also, don’t miss the Designing the Parks blog written by the team of interns. Seriously, it’s good.
Video Production Intern, Vanessa Hartsuiker, films on the grounds at Chatham Manor at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park for a cultural landscape report video (NPS Photo).
It’s always been a dream of mine to have my own GQ Style photo shoot. And when I saw Brad Pitt’s National Park Service photo shoot for GQ, I thought to myself, “Hmmm. I work in a national park. I should just do it myself and show everyone the beauty of Fire Island National Seashore where I was so fortunate to spend my summer working on my passions in science communication. I had so much fun doing these and had lots of help and support from some incredible friends :)
“…We call these World War I memorials, but that is only a corrective note of history. There was not to be another conflict of such scale. The inscription on the base of this white marble structure says only ‘The Great War to Save Civilization.’”
Image: District of Columbia War Memorial. Credit: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images.
Sound map of natural conditions of the United States by the National Park Service, estimating how places would sound naturally, without human influence.
The trend is higher sound levels in wetter areas with more vegetation. This is due to the sounds of wind blowing through vegetation, flowing water, and more animals (especially birds and frogs) vocalizing in more fertile locations.
You can look at higher res maps here and also see the sound map of existing condtions.
Top Shot features the photo with the most votes from the previous day’s Daily Dozen, 12 photos selected by the Your Shot editors. The photo our community has voted as their favorite is showcased on the @natgeoyourshot Instagram account. Click here to vote for tomorrow’s Top Shot.
“We witnessed a beautiful storm one evening while visiting Glacier National Park,” writes Your Shot photographer Beth Mancuso. “At first, a double rainbow appeared and then as the rainbow began to fade mammatus clouds emerged. It was one of the most beautiful sites I have ever seen!” Photograph by Beth Mancuso
