Trekking: A Tabletop Book Fit For The Park Service’s centennial

By Brandon Widder December 17, 2015

national park

national park

national park

national park

national park

national park

national park

Man isn’t meant to stay indoors — our weekly “Trekking” column can attest to that. It’s a column dedicated to the adventurer inside of all of us, the one pining to ditch the office humdrum for a quick surf session or seven-week jaunt in the Grand Tetons. One day we may highlight an ultra-light stove and the next a set of handmade canoe paddles. Life doesn’t just happen inside the workplace, so get outside and live it.

A 100-year anniversary is cause for celebration, or at least it should be. President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service into effect on August 25, 1916, thus establishing a newly-minted federal bureau and wide-spread preservation aimed at managing what would soon become our nation’s 58 national parks. Anderson Design Group’s Illustrated National Parks ($50) is a beautiful testament to those beginnings, one graciously peppered with history and artwork in equal measure.

Written by Nathan Anderson and adorned with artwork from the folks at Anderson Design Group, the large coffee table book is a commemorative snapshot of what the National Parks were, are, and will be in the future. The award-winning team of artists set forth to create a retro-style poster for each park in the system, visiting each, gathering a wealth of photographs, and drawing inspiration for the project before fleshing it out. The 160-page book features nearly 60 posters of those posters and 12 additional oil paintings, as well as historic photos, a map of the United States, travel tips, and an overview and history of the National Park Service. The artwork accounts for the rich diversity among the parks, from the mammoth sequoias highlighting the West to the shale-lined slopes of the Shenandoah, leaving a lasting impression that, conveniently, also fits on your coffee table.

Check out the book online for more information, or to browse the Nashville-based design firm’s excellent collection of postcards, posters, and related memorabilia.

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Brandon Widder is a journalist and a staff writer for the Manual and its brother site, Digital Trends, where he covers tech…

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