Yellowstone Poster Exhibition To Be on View at UWs Coe Library

A first-of-its-kind exhibition that focuses on the history of Yellowstone National Park posters will be on display at the University of Wyoming’s Coe Library beginning Tuesday, Feb. 1.

“Wonderland Illustrated” will present posters and poster-style illustrations of the park spanning from the 1870s through 2022. The exhibition will be located on Level 3 of Coe Library in the hall outside of UW Libraries’ Emmett D. Chisum Special Collections. It will be on view through Friday, May 27.

The exhibition coincides with this year’s 150th anniversary of the creation of Yellowstone National Park. The posters in the exhibition serve the purpose of both advertising and art.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Yellowstone collectors Jack and Susan Davis, and Larry and Thea Lancaster to bring this exhibition to the University of Wyoming as part of yearlong celebrations recognizing Yellowstone’s sesquicentennial,” says Tamsen Hert, head of UW Libraries’ Emmett D. Chisum Special Collections. “This exhibition spans the history of printing, art, photography and advertising over 16 decades. The images reproduced are found on travel brochures, postcards and maps -- many of which are held in our collections.”

One poster from the exhibition -- Henry Wellge’s “Yellowstone National Park” from 1904 -- was recently purchased with endowment funds and is now part of UW Libraries’ Emmett D. Chisum Special Collections. Wellge, a prolific bird’s-eye-view artist, designed the piece for the Northern Pacific Railroad, which used it to advertise the park. This is a unique piece, as posters such as this one were printed on soft paper and very few have survived.

UW Libraries also is collaborating with Montana State University (MSU) Library to host “Conversations on Collecting Yellowstone” June 5-8 at MSU. The conference will focus on collecting, preserving and using materials that document the history of Yellowstone National Park. For more information, go to www.collectingyellowstone.com.

For more information about the exhibition, call Hert at (307) 766-6245 or email thert@uwyo.edu.