Seven national parks on a poster in Santa Fe

In 2016 the National Park Service turned 100. To mark it, Mixie Kingman Eddy, Eugene Kingman’s eldest daughter, brought her father’s 1931 national park paintings to Santa Fe on a poster.

The occasion was A Century of Design in the Parks, a symposium held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from June 21 to 23, 2016. On the afternoon of June 21, in the poster session, Mixie presented “Presenting the Parks at the 1931 Paris Exposition: Paintings by Eugene Kingman.” Her sister, Elizabeth Anne Kingman, was there with her.

The poster told a story that began in January 1931. Horace M. Albright, Director of the National Park Service, commissioned Kingman, then a 21-year-old student at Yale, to paint large oil paintings of seven national parks for the Paris Colonial Exposition that year. Albright wanted to draw Europeans to visit America’s parks. Kingman painted Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Mt. Rainier, Crater Lake and Yosemite between January and April 1931, and the paintings were shown in Paris.

The Providence Journal announced the news on January 13, 1931, with a headline the poster quotes: “Youthful Artist Achieves Honor: Eugene Kingman 21, Chosen by the National Park Service to Paint Seven Pictures to be Exhibited in Paris.”

Mixie designed the poster herself, under the title “Honoring America’s Magnificent National Park Wonders.” It sets all seven paintings side by side, with two photographs of Kingman painting outdoors. Quinlan Kingman Eddy and Elizabeth Anne Kingman handled the photo production. In her abstract, Mixie wrote that she hoped the poster would remind people to visit national and state parks, and thanked the CCC, the WPA and all who made the parks what they are today.

You can see the seven Paris paintings on the major works page, and read more about the commission on the life page.