Original national park posters reprinted

As a park ranger in Grand Teton National Park in the 1970s, Doug Leen stumbled upon an old poster depicting Jenny Lake. He liked it, saved it and put it up on his wall. Twenty years later, that same poster sparked a hunt for the rest of a rare set of historical posters.

Between 1938 and 1941, artists from the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency, began designing posters for the National Park Service. Fourteen park posters were made, each only reprinted 100 times.

After switching from park ranger to dentist, by 1992 Leen had nearly forgotten about the poster. But upon receiving word of black and white negatives of the rest of the collection, he sprinted to a phone booth, and the hunt was on.

“I entered that phone booth a mild-mannered dentist, but I came out as Ranger Doug,” he said.

Leen, who spoke June 28 at the Glacier National Park Community Building in West Glacier, presented two of the original WPA posters. One depicts Mount Gould above Swiftcurrent Lake on the east side of Glacier, the other a waterfall in Yellowstone.

Leen, also known as the “Ranger of the Lost Art,” spent the last five years republishing those original posters. The project cost almost $150,000 and was funded through poster sales alone.

Although only 14 parks originally commissioned posters, Leen’s work attracted the attention of other parks wanting contemporary posters in the original WPA style. Now more than 50 parks and monuments have posters designed by Leen and co-artist Brian Maebius, and more are planned for the future.

The presentation was part of the brown bag luncheon series hosted by the Crown of the Continent Research Learning Center. Leen is currently touring with the posters with the goal of raising $25,000 for the National Park Service during its centennial year.

Leen’s posters and other work can be purchased at www.rangerdoug.com.