2025 Theses Master's

Pieces of a Park: Connecting Art, Cultural Heritage, and People at Mount Rainier National Park

Garcia, Lily

The role of art in and about national parks is omnipresent, yet it remains a niche research area. This thesis seeks to further and nuance this area of research by placing the discourse within the purview of historic preservation. The primary argument of the thesis is that art helps socially construct the cultural heritage of national parks and ascribes values to them. These values then allow the public to connect, mentally and emotionally, to national parks, and, in that way, art advocates for their historic preservation.

The three primary research questions are: (1) How does art influence the social construction of national parks as cultural heritage? (2) What values are ascribed to national parks through art? (3) How does art affect advocacy and contribute to historic preservation decisions?

To allow for in-depth research, one national park is primarily focused on. Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state serves as the case study and was selected based on its influence, representativeness, and lack of prevalence in current historic preservation scholarship. After theoretical background and a historical analysis, the works of three different kinds of artists at Mount Rainier are examined. The writings of John Muir, the photographs of Asahel Curtis, and the sketches of Dee Molenaar, all provide insight to how art socially constructs the cultural heritage of Mount Rainier National Park, ascribes values, and, in turn, advocates for its historic preservation.