[Nhcoll-l] Save our Signs - National Parks sign archiving campaign

[Lena G. Bohman]

The Data Rescue Project<https://www.datarescueproject.org/> (DRP) and partners need your help in preserving American history – but this time, we need you to put on your ranger hat and boots, and trek to your local national park to #SaveOurSigns (https://saveoursigns.org<https://saveoursigns.org/>).

The National Parks Service is the nation’s largest outdoor history classroom<https://www.oah.org/site/assets/files/10189/imperiled_promise.pdf>. Spanning 400 sites, the Parks work tirelessly to fulfill their legal mandate to steward our nation’s stories and make them accessible to all Americans. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we need your help creating a community archive of these stories! Help us preserve signs that capture the history of America.

This summer, let’s #SaveOurSigns.

  1.
Find a National Park Service site<https://www.nps.gov/findapark/index.htm> to visit.
  2.
Take photos of any signage, including markers and monuments.
  3.
Upload those images to our shared space<http://z.umn.edu/saveoursigns>.

What we are looking for:

  *
Photos of interpretive signs, exhibits, or text from areas administered by the National Park Service.
  *
For example, this includes: National Parks, National Historic Sites, National Monuments, National Memorials, National Battlefields, National Trails, National Lakeshores, and other public lands.
  *
Please make sure that your photo clearly shows the text and that the text is readable.

This effort is in response to the Secretary of the Interior<https://www.doi.gov/document-library/secretary-order/so-3431-restoring-truth-and-sanity-american-history> asking Americans to report signs in the Parks that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” This grows out of Executive Order 14253, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History<https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/restoring-truth-and-sanity-to-american-history/>,” which seeks to erase “negative” stories from public view. Content deemed inappropriate has been ordered to be removed by September 17, 2025.

Join our effort to build a community archive of the signs, exhibits, and texts that could soon disappear from our national parks. We must act quickly to preserve all Americans’ stories. Together, we will preserve the full story of our nation.

This summer, let’s #SaveOurSigns at https://saveoursigns.org<https://saveoursigns.org/>.

Lena Bohman

Lena Bohman
Senior Data Management and Research Impact Librarian
Long Island Jewish - Forest Hills Liaison
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell
[Learn to use Open Athens on the Library’s YouTube channel]<https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ7OuwLufMv1_8OtFC8xzRUAXpXTqYInG>
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