As the Trump administration threatens to censure signs at national parks, volunteers are fanning out to catalog them before they disappear.
Save Our Signs, a community project led by librarians, data experts and public historians, launched its digital archive of over 10,000 photos Monday. The images capture plaques and other signage at hundreds of National Park Service sites, some of which are under federal review. Independence National Park, the historical destination that encompasses Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, has received particular scrutiny.Â
As of Tuesday afternoon, it had 347 photos in the archive, taken and submitted — like every image in the catalog — by volunteers. They also visited the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, Gloria Dei Church and Thaddeus Kościuszko National Memorial.
Save Our Signs mobilized in response to Executive Order 14253, which called for a review of the text at public monuments and parks. The directive, issued in March, instructed the Interior Department to flag signage that discussed racism, sexism or other “divisive narratives” and potentially remove it. The markers should instead “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people,” per President Donald Trump’s decree.
Independence National Park was cited in the executive order as a site promoting “corrosive ideology.” Subsequent reports suggested that the Trump administration planned to remove or alter an exhibit at the site’s President’s House honoring the nine enslaved people that George Washington brought to Philadelphia. The news sparked protests, and the display has remained untouched for the time being.
Not all parks have been spared. Signs referencing climate change, slavery and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II have vanished from NPS sites in Maine and New York, according to the Washington Post.Â
Save Our Signs is tracking these removals as part of its project. It’s also collecting more photos, particularly from the NPS sites the network hasn’t reached yet. While the Philadelphia parks — plus Valley Forge and Hopewell Furnace in Elverson — are already represented, the archive is seeking submissions from the Great Egg Harbor River in South Jersey, the First State National Historical Park in Delaware and the federally designated section of the Lower Delaware River in Bucks County.
“We’re inspired by the people who have sent us photos and told us how much the national parks mean to them,” Dr. Kirsten Delegard, one of the co-founders of the project, said in a press release. “This effort to shine a spotlight on historical erasure is just beginning. We need people to continue to collect more photos and tell other Americans what materials have already been removed from the national parks.”
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