---
title: '"Grand Canyon National Park: A Free Government Service" (National Park Service, about 1938)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-canyon-free-government-service-nps-1938/
description: A view of the Grand Canyon in pink and red above 'A free government service', with the Department of the Interior and National Park Service credit
section: Collection
---

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3. "Grand Canyon National Park: A Free Government Service"

[!["Grand Canyon National Park: A Free Government Service", 1938 US poster: A view of the Grand Canyon in pink and red above 'A](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/grand-canyon-free-government-service-nps-1938.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/grand-canyon-free-government-service-nps-1938.jpg)

# "Grand Canyon National Park: A Free Government Service" (National Park Service, about 1938)

A view of the Grand Canyon in pink and red above 'A free government service', with the Department of the Interior and National Park Service credit at the foot. The tell: the poster sells the government's own service, and the phrase 'free' shows the sponsor beside the scenery.

A national park poster of about 1938, made for the National Park Service by the Federal Art Project with C. Don Powell as designer. It shows the Grand Canyon in pink and red above the words 'A FREE GOVERNMENT SERVICE', with the Department of the Interior and National Park Service credit at the foot. It was part of a 1938-39 series and was aimed at the domestic public. The tagged technique is glittering generalities: 'free' and 'service' are positive words that present the sponsoring agency as a gift, while the scenery supplies the feeling of the offer. The poster itself makes no checkable claim about the service.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
A FREE GOVERNMENT SERVICE
GRAND CANYON
NATIONAL PARK
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
```

[← Entartete Kunst: Ausstellung der NSDAP im Haus der Kunst am Königsplatz (poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/entartete-kunst-plakat-karten-hier-1938/) [¡Ha entrado la España de Franco! (Nationalist poster) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ha-entrado-la-espana-de-franco-poster-1938/)

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