Home Chapter 1 --Origins --Before NPS --The Park Service Assumes Responsibility --Interpretation Institutionalized Chapter 2 --Branching Into History --The Importance of Historical Interpretation --Inagurating the Program --Historical Challenges Chapter 3 --New Directions --Audiovisual Innovations --Museums, Visitor Centers, and the New Look --Living History --Environmental Interpretation --Women in Interpretation --Other Agendas Chapter 4 --Interpreting Interpretation Chapter 5 --Interpretation In Crisis Appendices --Memo --Photographs Endnotes --Origins --Branching Into History --New Directions --Interpreting Interpretation --Interpretation in Crisis		INTERPRETATION IN THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE by Barry Mackintosh CHAPTER 2 BRANCHING INTO HISTORY The Importance of Historical Interpretation Inagurating the Program Historical Challenges There were few historical parks and thus little historical interpretation in the National Park System before the 1930s. Prehistoric human activity was the focus at Mesa Verde and some of the southwestern national monuments, and Indians received secondary attention in several of the large natural parks. Then Horace Albright, director from 1929 to 1933, lobbied actively and successfully to make historical areas a major component of the System. The Service's expansion in this direction--beginning with Colonial (Jamestown and Yorktown) and George Washington Birthplace national monuments in 1930, climaxed in 1933 by wholesale transfer of the War Department's historic forts and battlefields and the National Capital Parks--gave rise to another field of interpretive activity.
Top	History | Links to the Past | National Park Service | Search | Contact Last Modified: July 9, 2000 09:35:00 pm PST http://www.cr.nps.gov/