Last updated: April 21, 2024
Article
50 Nifty Finds #47: Bumper Views
Travel any distance on America’s road system today and you will see vehicles of every size and shape decorated with national park decals, stickers, and magnets; license plate frames; and custom and state-issued national park license plates. Proudly advertising places visited on cars is a tradition that began with license plate toppers in the 1920s and 1930s. As many of America’s favorite destinations, national parks quickly became part of the trend.
Topping It Off
Unlike the popular windshield stickers issued by the National Park Service (NPS) at some parks between 1917 and 1940 to visually identify that visitors in private cars had paid their entrance fees, national park license plate toppers weren’t created by the NPS to serve an administrative purpose. They were souvenirs purchased and displayed to show others where the car’s owner had been and what interested them.
Decorative license plate toppers (referred to hereafter as toppers) served as automobile advertising for companies, organizations, products, or services ranging from oil companies and service stations to grocery stores and chicken feed suppliers. Police and fire chiefs and doctors, nurses, and pharmacists used them to declare their status—and to avoid speeding or parking tickets. Toppers were created to advertise public safety, presidential elections, branches of the armed forces, automobile clubs, and the US Forest Service’s fire prevention messages. Toppers quickly became useful boosters for cities, attractions, and national parks as more Americans travelled farther from home.
Accurately dating toppers is difficult unless they advertise a specific event such as a world’s fair, Olympic games, or political candidate. The many websites and internet message boards devoted to collecting or selling them refer to them only as “vintage” or offer broad date ranges at best. Although the origin story for toppers is repeated frequently on such sites, little supporting evidence is available to document when they were created, who made them, where they were sold, and how much they cost. Few are marked with a maker’s name.
In some cases, the dates parks were created or changes in their names and designations can inform general date ranges for when toppers may have been made. For example, Kings Canyon National Park was established in 1940. Three years later it was administratively merged to become Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. It’s reasonable to assume, therefore, that Kings Canyon toppers were created during that short period.
Park Boosters
The NPS History Collection include three examples of the many toppers created to advertise national parks. The Yellowstone and Carlsbad Caverns national parks examples are made from enameled steel. Neither have makers’ marks. Both designs appear to have been used for long periods (with some changes to colors), making dating more challenging. In the case of the Yellowstone topper seen below, later versions feature a blue sky and blue state name rather than green.
A review of auction and collector websites gives a sense of the range of toppers that were available to drivers who wished to share their love of national parks. Larger toppers (about the width of a car license plate) have at least two areas to attach to the license plate, but smaller examples only have one. Parks with one or more toppers include:
- Arches National Monument
- Badlands National Monument [established in 1939; redesignated Badlands National Park in 1978]
- Boulder Dam [established in 1936; renamed Lake Mead National Recreation Area in 1947]
- Bryce Canyon National Park
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- Colorado National Monument
- Devils Tower National Monument
- Dinosaur National Monument
- Everglades National Park [established in 1947]
- Gettysburg National Battlefield Park
- Glacier National Park
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Grand Teton National Park
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park [established in 1934]
- Hot Springs National Park
- Isle Royale National Park [established in 1940]
- Kings Canyon National Park [established in 1940; administered as Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks beginning in 1943]
- Lassen Volcanic National Park
- Mesa Verde National Park
- Mammoth Cave National Park [established in 1941]
- Mount Rushmore National Monument [the presidents’ faces were completed in 1939]
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Saguaro National Monument [established in 1933; redesignated a national park in 1994]
- Shenandoah National Park
- Wind Cave National Park
- Yellowstone National Park
- Yosemite National Park
- Zion National Park
Although there are over a dozen topper designs for Yellowstone, at least two designs have been found for most parks in various styles, shapes, and colors, roughly spanning from the 1930s through the 1950s. In some cases, the NPS dates associated with a site can help date a topper style. For example, Kings Canyon National Park was established in 1940. Three years later it was administratively merged as park of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks. It’s reasonable to assume, therefore, that the topper was created during that short period.
Novelty Advertisers
Most of the national park toppers found online do not have any maker’s marks. Three manufacturers have been identified on a few toppers: C.E. Erickson Company, Advertising Novelty Company/Vernon Company, and Advertising Plates Company. The artists who created the designs are unknown. Given that many examples of the same national park designs exist with and without maker’s marks, it seems likely that others were behind their creation and subsequent sales, with companies manufacturing them as they were ordered.
C.E. Erickson Company Inc. was an early developer of automobile and other advertising. The company moved from Newton, Iowa, to Des Moines in 1913. In the early days of Model-T Fords and before antifreeze was developed, drivers used to clamp cardboard over the radiator to keep the water inside from freezing (the radiator also had to be drained each night in cold weather). Erickson is credited with the idea to print advertisements on the cardboard. The company called the product “Henry Chest Protectors,” and by 1925 they sold metal versions. A maker of “advertising specialties,” Erickson also created flexible fans; cardboard wind deflectors (to carry bugs over the windshield of a car); brass letter openers and door pulls; painted tin trays; hotel and shop signs; enameled, wall-mounted match, broom, and towel holders; flour sifters; thermometers; and other novelty items promoting the products and services of other companies. Information about when the company began making toppers has not been found. The company went out of the novelty advertising business in the 1960s.
The Vernon Company was established in 1902 by F.L. Vernon as the Economy Farm Record Company in Newton, Iowa. In 1940 the Advertising Novelty Company became the manufacturing arm of the company while the Vernon Company focused on sales. The company made calendars, advertising glass mirrors, metal signs, and vinyl, plastic, and metal advertising specialties. In 1955 the two were consolidated under the Vernon Company name. Some attraction toppers, including one for the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon national parks, have been seen on online auction sites marked “Ad-Nov-Co” and date from 1940 to 1955. Yellowstone and Lassen Volcanic national park toppers marked for the Vernon Company would date after 1955. The Vernon Company continues to operate today.
The Advertising Plates Company of Toledo, Ohio, made toppers for numerous national parks. Little has been found about the company, except that it exhibited at trade shows as early as 1948. It was still in operation in 1974.
In addition to advertising national parks, some toppers advertised amenities in national park gateway communities. This is the case with the Gateway Inn topper in the NPS History Collection. The inn, established in 1924, is located near the Nisqually entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. The topper was made from aluminum by the Advertising Plates Company. Although undated, its style is similar to others made in the 1950s.
Toppers were less popular after the 1950s, although they continued to be used until the 1980s when they were largely replaced by license plate frames. If you have examples from national parks that you’d like to share, or you can shed more light on their history, please contact the NPS History Collection archivist.
Sources
Images of national park toppers and C.E. Erickson Company Inc. advertising novelty products viewed at online auction sites ebay.com and worthpoint.com on April 14, 2024.
--. (1913). “Des Moines, IA. New Concern Moves to Des Moines.” Printing Trade News, Vol. 46, p. 42.
--. (1957, August 10). “The Vernon Company Salutes Newton on its 100th Anniversary!” The Newton Daily News (Newton, Iowa), pp. 143, 147.
Jockell, Sr., Karl. (1966, August 15). “Greetings from Allan M. Trout.” The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Kentucky), p. 33.