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Guide to NPS Director's Office Newsletters

This finding aid describes the National Park Service (NPS) Director's Office Newsletters Collection, part of the NPS History Collection. To search this guide for names, places, key words, or phrases enter Ctrl + F on your keyboard (command key + F key on a Mac). Request an in-person research appointment or get more information by contacting the archivist.

Collection Overview

Collection Number: HFCA 1645 (Series I.G)
Creator: National Park Service
Title: National Park Service Director's Office Newsletters Collection
Dates: 1919-1945, 1966-1977
Volume of Collection: 2.3 LF
Language of Materials: English

Digital Access: This collection has been digitized.

Conditions Governing Use: The collection is in the public domain and is open for research. See the NPS general copyright and restrictions information.

Provenance: The collection was assembled from copies sent to the NPS History Collection from various NPS sources.
Processing Note: This collection was processed and described by Casey Oehler in 2020. The finding aid was updated by Nancy Russell in March 2025.

Rights Statements for Archival Description: This guide is in the public domain.
Preferred Citation: NPS Director's Office Newsletters Collection, NPS History Collection (HFCA 1645)
Location of Repository: NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center, PO Box 50, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

Related Collections:

Records of the Employees and Alumnia Association of the National Park Service, NPS History Collection (HFCA 1645)

Administrative History Note

The National Park Service News was the first newsletter developed by the NPS director’s office. The first issue was published in April 1919, less than three years after the legislation establishing the NPS was signed on August 25, 1916, and two years after its first budget appropriation in 1917. In the opening letter of the first issue, Director Stephen T. Mather declared, “The National Park Service has now been organized for two years and it is high time that we have a definite means of keeping in touch with each other.” Mather developed the newsletter as a means of communicating the happenings of the NPS Washington Office with the field and sharing information among all personnel. It was “a medium by which the Service as a whole may be made better by closer cooperation between its several branches.”

The name of the newsletter changed to Park Service News in January 1920. It was published on a monthly basis, with a few exceptions, in 1919 and 1920. There were only two issues in 1921. The April 1919-March 1920 issues begin with an introductory letter usually written by Mather. The newsletters typically reported updates from the Washington Office followed by reports from the parks.

The newsletter underwent another name change in March 1922 becoming the Park Service Bulletin. Six months passed between the last issue of the Park Service News (August 1921) to the first issue of the Park Service Bulletin (March 1922) while awaiting Congressional approval for the publication. The bulletin was published by direction of the Secretary of the Interior as an administrative report required for the proper transaction of public business. It was published twice in 1922 and 1923. From August 1924-1925, it became a monthly publication, with a couple exceptions. Production lapsed again and issues were published sporadically from 1926 to1931 ranging between two to seven issues a year.

The Park Service Bulletin was renumbered in 1932, with the December 1931 (number 56) being the last issue of the new Volume I. Volume II number 1 was issued in January 1932. Volume II introduced new headline and cover designs and the “hope of issuing the bulletin more regularly.” Following 1932 a new volume of the bulletin was published each year. Issues were published either monthly or bi-monthly. Volume V published in 1935 replaced the green cover introduced in 1932 with a full-page photographic image. Over time the format changed, no longer separating reports from individual parks. The issues from this era generally consist of short articles with a mix of topics from the parks and the Washington Office followed by an “About Folks” section that records life events of employees.

During World War II, the bulletin was suspended and replaced by Memorandum Regarding Personnel and Policy Changes which kept employees updated on policy and personnel changes during wartime. In 1943 the name changed to Personnel and Policy Memorandum. In June 1943 a News Summary was published providing updates on individual parks. These memoranda continued the previous numbering of volumes from the Park Service Bulletin.

The bulletin was relaunched in 1944 under the expanded name National Park Service Bulletin with the intention of being issued monthly at the start of 1945. The format was similar to the previous bulletin. It is unclear when the bulletin ceased publication, but it was probably replaced by the NPS Employees & Alumni Association’s National Park Courier in 1956.

The director's office newsletter was reinvented under Director George B. Hartzog. In August 1966 Newsletter launched to share “important news of policy, procedure, program, and organization” with NPS employees. It was published bi-weekly and featured an updated format, but the content remained similar to that of earlier newsletters. Newsletter began at volume 1. The name of the publication was changed slightly in March 1970 to the NPS Newsletter. It underwent another slight name change in March 1975 becoming the National Park Service Newsletter, which ran until October 1977. In November 1977 it merged with the National Park Courier to form Courier: The National Park Service Newsletter.

Scope and Content Note

NPS Director’s Office newsletters dating from 1919-1945 and 1966-1977. Topics covered in the newsletters include announcements of new parks; park bills proposed to Congress; suggested policies or policy changes; NPS appropriations; current exhibits; visitor numbers and special visitors; railroad, airplane, and automobile travel; organization of the NPS; development projects; research; weather; natural disasters; concession operations; flora and fauna in parks; labor and supply markets; personnel travel plans, accomplishments, and appointments; and employee marriage, birth, and death announcements, among other subjects.

Of the first 56 issues of the newsletters (under various names), only issues number 11 (June 1920), 21 (1923/1924), and 37 (1927) are missing. Only number 2 of the second volume (1932) of the Park Service Bulletin is missing. All issues of the Park Service Bulletin from 1933 through 1941 are present.

Issues from the wartime years are incomplete. Only the first three issues of volume twelve (1942) are present. A News Summary from June 1943 and volume 13 number four, published as Personnel and Policy Memorandum, in July 1943 are present. The first two issues of volume fourteen, published as National Park Service Bulletin are missing; the rest of the volume is present. Only the first five issues of volume 15, published as National Park Service Bulletin, are present. There are no issues from August 1945 through September 1966. All issues of the Newsletter, NPS Newsletter, and National Park Service Newsletter published between September 1966 and October 1977 are present.

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically by year.

Container List

BOX 01
Folder 01: 1919, National Park Service News
Folder 02: 1920, Park Service News
Folder 03: 1921, Park Service News
Folder 04: 1922, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 05: 1923, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 06: 1924, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 07: 1925, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 08: 1926, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 09: 1927, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 10: 1928, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 11: 1929, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 12: 1930, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 13: 1931, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 14: 1932, Park Service Bulletin

BOX 02
Folder 01: 1933, Park Service Bulletin
Folders 02-03: 1934, Park Service Bulletin
Folders 04-05: 1935, Park Service Bulletin
Folders 06-07: 1936, Park Service Bulletin

BOX 03
Folders 01-02: 1937, Park Service Bulletin
Folders 03-04: 1938, Park Service Bulletin

BOX 04
Folders 01-03: 1939, Park Service Bulletin
Folders 04-05: 1940, Park Service Bulletin

BOX 05
Folder 01: 1941, Park Service Bulletin
Folder 02: 1942, Park Service Bulletin & Memorandum Regarding Personnel and Policy Changes
Folder 03: 1943, News Summary & Personnel and Policy Memorandum
Folder 04: 1944, National Park Service Bulletin
Folder 05: 1945, National Park Service Bulletin

BOX 06
Folder 01: 1966, Newsletter
Folder 02: 1967, Newsletter
Folder 03: 1968, Newsletter
Folder 04: 1969, Newsletter
Folder 05: 1970, Newsletter & NPS Newsletter
Folder 06: 1971, NPS Newsletter
Folder 07: 1972, NPS Newsletter
Folder 08: 1973, NPS Newsletter
Folder 09: 1974, NPS Newsletter
Folder 10: 1975, NPS Newsletter & National Park Service Newsletter
Folder 11: 1976, National Park Service Newsletter
Folder 12: 1977, National Park Service Newsletter