For New Yorkers, the National Parks of the U.S. may seem far away. But from September 27 until February 22, 2026, Poster House is bringing the parks to us in "Blazing A Trail: Dorothy Waugh’s National Parks Posters." It's the first exhibition dedicated to Waugh's parks campaign.
"Blazing A Trail" features 17 travel posters designed between 1934 and 1936 by landscape architect and highly trained artist Dorothy Waugh, created for the National Park Service’s first ever poster campaign.
Before Waugh came along, it was actually America’s railroad companies who were the main source of advertising for the National Parks Service in the 1870s. Their posters were, yes, attractive, but very conventional. Waugh was the first to advocate for the bureau to produce its own poster campaign, along with styling and messaging, separate from the railroads. Waugh continued this work for the rest of the 20th century, leaving a legacy that endures today.