Blazing a Trail

Dorothy Waugh’s National Park Service posters comprise a striking visual record in the history of the Great Depression and mark a turning point in American graphic design. Convinced that tourism would be crucial to restoring the nation’s shattered economy and morale, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invested heavily in conserving the parks and preparing them for more visitors. But jump-starting tourism during hard times, Waugh asserted, would also require bold promotion. The government’s approval of her publicity campaign was a first―it had never entrusted such an ambitious project to a solo designer, let alone a female modernist. At once avant-garde and accessible, Waugh’s seventeen posters issued between 1934 and 1936 helped fuel a boom in parks tourism. Her trailblazing work also placed her at the forefront of what would become the government’s expansive presence in American visual culture.

This book accompanies an exhibition of the same name at Poster House in New York City. The first dedicated to Waugh, the book and the exhibition explore her campaign in depth―situating it within the era’s turmoil, the surge of government posters that followed her lead, and her remarkably diverse career. Author and curator Mark Resnick is a museum leader and an expert on the history of American graphic design.

Mark H. Resnick has deep experience in art, business, and law, in the non-profit and for-profit sectors alike. He has served in positions ranging from executive director (acting) of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, director of strategic initiatives at Williams College Museum of Art, chief business executive for 20th Century Fox’s flagship film unit, chief lawyer for Sony Pictures’ film unit, and on arts-related boards including that of the Yale University Art Gallery and National Arts Strategies (board chair). He is an authority on the history of American graphic design, a field in which he curates, publishes, and lectures. He has recently returned to the consulting firm he founded in 2017, Resnick Arts and Culture Consulting. The firm advises museums, other cultural institutions, and their leaders on a wide range of matters, and counsels major collectors on the sale or donation of their collections.