Today is the 100th Anniversary of the United States National Park Service. It seems a little odd that it took so long to come into existence considering 12 National Parks were established prior to the creation of the National Park Service. Either way I’m glad a system of protection for the national parks exists.

While the US was busy crafting a system of preservation for its natural beauty, a few more pressing things were on the minds of much of the rest of the world. Only days after the NPS was created Italy declared war on Germany and Turkey declared on Romania. Sometimes humanity loses track of things that happened at the same time because they seem so incongruent.

On one side of the world there was a press for preservation while in the same moments sites of historic significance were being destroyed and populations overrun.

Below are photos of three national parks that were established within the same month as the National Park Service coupled with images of Europe to compare.

HaleakalāGerman_troops_riga_1916 Italy at war Lassen Puu_Oo_cropped Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1981-137-08A,_Konstantinopel,_Besuch_Kaiser_Wilhelm_II.

The history of the world is fascinating and love to compare events that seem so at odds with one another. Happy Birthday National Park Service! Here’s to another 100 years of preserving natural beauty.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Erin

Leave a Reply