Wild Life — The National Parks Preserve All Life WPA Poster, 1936

The story of this poster

Frank S. Nicholson drew several of the New York Federal Art Project’s travel and conservation sheets, and this is his quietest. A deer bends to drink at a pool at the foot of a grove of tall, bare trunks, the whole forest done in two browns and a grey, and the message — WILD LIFE, the national parks preserve all life — sits in the top margin like a caption.

The Library of Congress copy is mounted on board with the studio’s colour bar along the bottom edge, trimmed here. The scan is a little smaller than the park series, so the print is offered at 12×16, where it carries 252 dots per inch; nothing is upscaled. Dust and specks have been removed and the browns balanced, keeping the flat, matte look of the original screen printing.

It is the companion of the bighorn sheet, and the two hang together as a pair.

Printed to order on archival matte paper, framed in the country of delivery.

Before and after

Left: the archive scan exactly as published. Right: the file that goes to the printer.

Archive scanRestored

Restoration notes

Restoration: trimmed the mount board and scanner margins, balanced levels while keeping the silkscreen's flat inks and paper tone (90% of the original colour retained), removed dust and specks, and applied gentle sharpening. Creases, edge wear and registration slips of the original screen printing are kept where they belong to the object; nothing is redrawn.

Every print carries its archive credit on the packing slip. Paper tone and small imperfections of the original are kept on purpose; nothing is redrawn.