Volunteers Archive Threatened National Park Signs Amid Federal Censorship Drive
A crowdsourced effort called Save Our Signs is documenting park signage before the National Park Service removes content deemed controversial by the administration.
When the Trump administration started erasing government datasets, librarian Jenny McBurney joined the Data Rescue Project and later co-founded Save Our Signs to protect at-risk National Park Service signage. Rangers were told to flag and take down signs that referenced slavery, Indigenous peoples or climate change, prompting the volunteer archive to collect images of signs across more than 400 parks and historic sites.
Hundreds of contributors, many anonymous, have submitted photos that now represent almost every location. Participants like Isabelle Boelter and Charlene Forsythe view the work as a way to counteract censorship and preserve a fuller narrative of U.S. history. The archive also records the public response to the removals, while legal battles continue over whether the signs must be reinstated.
Why it matters
It preserves public historical information that the government is attempting to eliminate.
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