Guide to the Nature Notes Collection

This finding aid describes the Nature Notes 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.

Hand-colored cover from Yellowstone National Park's "Nature Notes," July 1, 1924. (NPS photo)

Collection Overview

Collection Number: HFCA 1645 (Series IV.I)
Creator: National Park Service
Title: Nature Notes Collection
Dates: 1924-1960 (bulk dates: 1927-1939)
Volume of Collection: 3.0 LF
Language of Materials: English

Digital Access: This collection has not been digitized. However, digitized issues in park or other collections are available. See "Related Collections" below for links to some available digital copies.

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

Provenance: The collection was assembled from copies sent to the NPS History Collection from various park sources.
Processing Note: This collection was processed and described by Lloyd Williams in 2012. 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: Nature Notes Collection, NPS History Collection (HFCA 1645)
Location of Repository: NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center, PO Box 50, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

Related Collections:

• Glacier Nature Notes, Glacier National Park
• Yellowstone Nature Notes, Yellowstone National Park
• Yosemite Nature Notes, Yosemite National Park

Administrative History Note

From June to September 1920, Yellowstone National Park naturalist Milton P. Skinner started a new monthly newsletter to share “notes” on natural history topics such as flowers, geology, animals, birds with the public. These simple, typed 3- or 4-page documents continued monthly during summer 1921. The next year they were professionally printed as two-page leaflets. In July 1922 Yosemite National Park’s naturalist Ansel F. Hall and his staff began publishing Yosemite Nature Notes, which grew out of a popular series of weekly articles Hall and ranger Enid Michael published in the Stockton Register. The expanded publication provided visitors with information about plants, animals, museum activities, the nature guide service, special guests, and other topics of interest. Within a few years, and benefiting from professional printing services, high-quality drawings and cover art and photographs illustrated the publication which was also available through a subscription service. Twelve issues were published each year through 1960, with one issue each in 1961 and 1962. “Nature Notes” was removed from the cover in 1958, and Yosemite Nature Notes officially became Yosemite in 1961. The publication run ended in 1962.

Sequoia National Park’s Nature Guide Service, represented by Walter Fry, began publishing a bulletin in June 1922. Sometimes titled Sequoia Nature News Notes it was simpler and shorter than the Yosemite publication, usually focusing on a single species in each bulletin. It was also issued less regularly until its final issue in 1937. Mount Rainier National Park published its Nature Notes series from 1923 through 1939. Publication frequency varied from bi-weekly to quarterly depending on season and staffing levels. It was available at the park and to subscribers around the country.

Although Yellowstone didn’t produce its "notes" series in 1923, it began publishing Yellowstone Nature Notes in June 1924. Described as a “series of bulletins to be issued from time to time for the information of those interested in the natural history and scientific features of Yellowstone National Park and unmatched educational opportunities offered by this region,” it was available free of charge to park visitors and anyone who added their name to the mailing list. Charming illustrations, including hand-colored covers, were quickly added, furthering the publication’s appeal. Most years the staff created six or 12 issues, although none were created from 1943-1945. Over time, they became longer and photographs were added. Yellowstone Nature Notes ended with the November/December 1958 issue.

Rocky Mountain National Park began publishing its Nature News Notes in 1924, two years after Sequoia. Rocky Mountain didn't begin the more standard Nature Notes series until 1928. Six volumes were published by the time the series ended in 1933.

Grand Canyon Nature Notes began in March 1926. Published monthly until 1935, it presented articles on animals, plants, fossils, Native Americans, geology, astrology, and other topics. In January 1927 Glacier Park Nature Notes debuted. Only two issues are known from that year and none from 1928. In 1929, however, Nature Notes from Glacier National Park returned with drawings and longer articles featuring original essays, wildlife observations, poetry, and musings by park staff. In 1931 it was renamed Glacial Drift: Notes from Glacier National Park, after the most popular section of the earlier publication, because the bulletin’s scope had become much broader than natural history. Only a single issue was published in 1938, its final year.

Nature Notes from Crater Lake began in July 1928. It continued to be published three or four times a year through 1938. Following World War II, it resumed in 1946 for another decade. Its contents were described as “original articles, notes, digests, poems, sketches, bits of park life, comments and opinions of interested parties.” Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks published a single bulletin for both parks from 1929 through 1934. Mesa Verde (1930-1937), Hawai’i (1931-1934), Acadia (1932-1939), Lassen Volcanic (1932-1936), Hot Springs (1934-1936), and Grand Teton (1935-1939) national parks were relative latecomers to the Nature Notes phenomenon.

In 1937 and 1938 the National Park Service Western Museum Laboratories used Works Progress Administration funding to create an index to the series. Created under the direction of Hazel Hunt Voth, the index reflects the popularity and usefulness of Nature Notes at the time.

Although the "Nature Notes" name has been repurposed by some parks for later publications and different formats through the early 2000s, the heyday of the original Nature Notes series ended after the 1930s.

Scope and Content Note

Nature Notes newsletters for Acadia, Crater Lake, Glacier, Hawai'i, Hot Springs, Mesa Verde, Mount Rainier, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion/Bryce Canyon national parks. Some are incomplete sets. Topics include plants, wildlife, road and trail conditions, park regulations, safety, and historical notes. Inspirational poems, illustrations, and anecdotes are also included. Indexes are present for some parks but the 1938 Nature Notes index includes all parks, including those not represented in this collection.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically with the series index at the end.

Container List

BOX 01
Folder 01: Acadia National Park, vol. 1-3, 1932-1934
Folder 02: Acadia National Park, vol. 4-5, 1935-1939
Folder 03: Acadia National Park Index, 1932-1934
Folder 04: Crater Lake National Park, vol. 1-3, 1928-1930
Folder 05: Crater Lake National Park, vol. 4-6, 1931-1933
Folder 06: Crater Lake National Park, vol. 7-8, 1934-1935
Folder 07: Crater Lake National Park, vol. 10-12, 1937-1946
Folder 08: Glacier National Park, vol. 1-2, 1927-1929
Folder 09: Glacier National Park, vol. 3, 1930
Folder 10: Glacier National Park, vol. 4, 1931
Folder 11: Glacier National Park, vol. 5-7, 1932-1934

BOX 02
Folder 01: Glacier National Park, vol. 8-11, 1935-1938
Folder 02: Grand Canyon National Park, vol. 4 and 6, 1929-1932
Folder 03: Hawaii National Park, vol. 1-3, 1931-1933
Folder 04: Hawaii National Park, vol. 1-3 (Bound Copies), 1931-1933
Folder 05: Hot Springs National Park, vol. 1, 1934
Folder 06: Hot Springs National Park, vol. 2, 1935 [1 of 2]
Folder 07: Hot Springs National Park, vol. 2, 1935 [2 of 2]
Folder 08: Hot Springs National Park, vol. 3, 1936

BOX 03
Folder 01: Hot Springs National Park, vol. 4, 1937
Folder 02: Mesa Verde National Park, vol. 1-3, 1930-1932
Folder 03: Mesa Verde National Park, vol. 4-7, 1933-1937
Folder 04: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 2-5, 1924-1927
Folder 05: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 6, 1928
Folder 06: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 7, 1929
Folder 07: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 8, 1930
Folder 08: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 9, 1931

BOX 04
Folder 01: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 10, 1932
Folder 02: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 11, 1933
Folder 03: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 12, 1934
Folder 04: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 13, 1935
Folder 05: Mount Rainier National Park, vol. 14-15, 1936-1937
Folder 06: Rocky Mountain National Park, Early Editions, 1924
Folder 07: Rocky Mountain National Park, vol. 1-2, 1928-1929
Folder 08: Rocky Mountain National Park, vol. 3-4, 1930-1931
Folder 09: Rocky Mountain National Park, vol. 5-6, 1932-1933
Folder 10: Sequoia National Park, Press Bulletins, 1929, 1931
Folder 11: Sequoia National Park "Index 1922-1937," 1938

BOX 05
Folder 01: Yellowstone National Park, vol. 4, 6-7, 1927-1930
Folder 02: Yellowstone National Park, vol. 8-11, 1931-1934
Folder 03: Yellowstone National Park, vol. 12-16, 1935-1939
Folder 04: Yosemite National Park, vol. 5-7, 1926-1928
Folder 05: Yosemite National Park, vol. 8-9, 1929-1930
Folder 06: Yosemite National Park, vol. 10-12, 1931-1933
Folder 07: Yosemite National Park, vol. 13-15, 17, 1934-1938

BOX 06
Folder 01: Yosemite National Park, vol. 18, 1939
Folder 02: Yosemite National Park, vol. 19, 22, 24, 1940-1945
Folder 03: Yosemite National Park, vol. 25-27, 31, 1946-1952
Folder 04: Yosemite National Park, vol. 32-33, 1953-1954
Folder 05: Yosemite National Park, vol. 34-35, 1955-1957
Folder 06: Yosemite National Park, vol. 39, 1960
Folder 07: Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, vol. 1-4, 1929-1932

BOX 07
Folder 01: Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, vol. 5-6, 1933-1934
Folder 02: Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, vol. 7-8, 1935-1936
Folder 03: Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, vol. 1-6 (Bound), 1929-1934
Folder 04: "General Index to ‘Nature Notes’ National Parks, 1920-1936," 1938

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