Ranger Doug Leen, ‘Ranger of the Lost Art.’ Courtesy photoPEEC News:
Doug Leen, a former National Park Service Ranger, will be in Los Alamos to share what has become his mission: bringing a collection of rare National Park Service posters back into the public domain.
At 7 p.m. today, Feb. 18, at the Los Alamos Nature Center, Ranger Doug presents “National Park Service Poster Treasure Hunt,” a talk about his experiences over the last forty years trying to hunt down the iconic Park Service posters, and make them available to the public. The talk is free and open to the public.
Leen is visiting Los Alamos at the invitation the Friends of Bandelier and the Pajarito Environmental Education Center as part of Bandelier National Monument’s 2016 Centennial Celebration. Ranger Doug is in the middle of a nationwide tour to share stories and information about his first National Park Service 1938 poster discovery, and efforts to bring the images into the public eye.
The Works Progress Administration federal art project, between 1935 – 1943, printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public’s imagination for education, theater, health, safety and travel. Due to their fragility, only two thousand posters have survived to this day; fewer than one tenth of one percent.
During his early park career, Ranger Doug found the last surviving WPA national park poster during a park clean-up day; rescued from the burn pile. After a twenty-year search, he discovered the remnants of this unique poster art in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, but only in black and white negatives of poor quality.
The posters were long gone. Using these photographs and the original poster as a template he republished the 14 silk screen prints; a laborious five-year project costing about $150,000 and funded by poster sales. The parks then began approaching Ranger Doug to continue this series (with co-artist Brian Maebius) which currently numbers about 50 national parks.
Ranger Doug aka “Ranger of the Lost Art” has exhibited this art in many galleries and museums around the country including a recent 14-month exhibit at the Department of the Interior Museum in Washington DC. He has been featured in the LA Times, Boston Globe and NPR’s Morning Edition with Brian Naylor among many other media. This art has also been featured in several movies and can be seen in the TV serial “Parks & Recreation.” Two prints currently hang in the White House.
This event will take place at the Los Alamos Nature Center at 2600 Canyon Road. It is free to attend, and no registration is required. For more information about this and other Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC) programs, visit here, email programs@peecnature.org or call (505).662.0460.
