Historians hurriedly photograph national park signs at risk of removal

An online group has started a grassroots effort with the goal of archiving signs at national parks that may be at risk of removal under the Trump administration’s directive to report displays that are critical of unsavory aspects of American history. 

The Save Our Signs project was launched earlier this year by a group of historians, librarians and data analysts. It asks people across the country to photograph interpretive signs at national parks that might be at risk of being removed or altered by the Trump administration’s “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order signed in March. The order calls for the removal of public displays on federally managed land that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living” — displays that, so far, largely reference violent injustices carried out by the American government over the course of its history, including slavery, massacres of Native Americans and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. 

The project has received over 10,000 submissions since it launched this summer, according to Jenny McBurney, a librarian at the University of Minnesota who is involved with the project. 

“We’re very concerned about the white-washing of history,” McBurney said. “We want to make sure that all of this amazing work that national park employees have done to tell us about the land that we visit at the parks, and tell us about the history of those sites, is in the public’s hands.” 

McBurney said she hopes submissions garnered by the project will help create a “snapshot in time of what the parks look like today,” prior to the potential removal of historical signs. 

The project also includes a spreadsheet of parks where historical signs have been removed or altered: a list that, so far, includes Muir Woods National Monument, Acadia National Park and Gateway National Recreation Area. Removed signs have included information regarding the effects of climate change on Acadia National Park and references to slavery, Japanese incarceration and violence toward Native Americans at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City. 

“It’s just so disappointing and devastating, really, that this information is being removed in this kind of format,” McBurney said. 

The deadline to submit photos was Sept. 17, and collected photos are expected to be published on a publicly accessible server Oct. 13. The project continues to accept photos, but they may be published at a later date, according to the Save Our Signs website.