Ansel Adams shot 226 park photos for a mural that never got made

World War II stopped the 1941 Department of the Interior project, but the National Archives holds the prints and offers them free.

Aug 13, 2026

∙ Paid

Ansel Adams — Ansel Adams / U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 519904) / Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)

In 1941 the National Park Service hired Ansel Adams to make a photo mural of the national parks for the Department of the Interior Building in Washington, DC. Adams took the pictures between 1941 and 1942, and then the project s…

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