Save Our Signs: Let’s Get It Done

We are rapidly approaching the deadline imposed by the administration for removing content deemed inappropriate from our National Parks: September 17, 2025. This means we are running out of time to Save Our Signs.

As we are coming up on Labor Day, the Data Rescue Project hopes that you will spend your holiday weekend exploring one of our great parks and snapping a few photos for archival preservation. Here’s what to do:

1. Take a look at the Photo Counter map on the Save Our Signs website. Pick a park that we have not received any photos from yet.
2. Let us know where you are going! Post on social media with the #SaveOurSigns hashtag. We love seeing what people are doing with the project.
3. Go to the park and take photos of the interpretive signage. Make sure that the photos are clear and readable, and that they don’t include any people.
4. Submit your photos at saveoursigns.org.
5. Feel good – you helped with data preservation!

Want a Suggestion? Parks to Prioritize

Below are some parks that we have no, or only a few, pictures from. And we would really like to see more! However, we also want to emphasize that we value all contributions – given how vague the wording on the executive order is, it is difficult to know what exactly will be targeted.

• Blackwell School National Historic Site - Fort Davis, TX
  • Written by prejudice rather than law, the story of the Blackwell School is one of “separate but equal” education for Mexican and Mexican American citizens of Marfa, Texas.
• Booker T Washington National Monument - Hardy, VA
  • Born enslaved, Booker T. Washington became one of the country's most prominent African American educators.
• Cesar E Chavez National Monument - Keene, CA
  • César E. Chávez led farm workers and supporters in the establishment of the country's first permanent agricultural union.
• Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site - Hyde Park, NY
  • Eleanor Roosevelt was an advocate for peace, justice, and equal rights, and was committed to racial justice and African American Civil Rights.
• Freedom Riders National Monument - Anniston, AL
  • Visit the former Greyhound Bus Station located at 1031 Gurnee Ave in downtown Anniston, where segregationists attacked the Freedom Riders.
• Gettysburg National Military Park - Gettysburg, PA
  • The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, the Union victory that ended General Robert E. Lee's second and most ambitious invasion of the North.
• Harpers Ferry National Historical Park - Harpers Ferry, WV
  • Harpers Ferry witnessed John Brown's attack on slavery and is the home of one of the earliest integrated schools in the US.
• Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument - Crow Agency, MT
  • The Sioux and Cheyenne battle the US.Army's 7th Cavalry in one of the Indian's last armed efforts to preserve their way of life.
• Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site - Little Rock, AR
  • Little Rock Central High School is recognized for the role it played in the desegregation of public schools in the United States.
• Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site - Washington, DC
  • Mary McLeod Bethune achieved her greatest recognition at the Washington, DC townhouse that is now this National Historic Site.
• Nicodemus National Historic Site - Nicodemus, KS
  • Formerly enslaved African Americans left Kentucky at the end of the post-Civil War Reconstruction period to experience freedom in the "Promised Land" of Kansas. It is the oldest and only remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi River.
• Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail - AL
  • Trace the footsteps of those who walked this 54-mile trail to freedom!
• Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument - Springfield, IL
  • In August 1908, a large White mob attacked the Black community in Springfield, Illinois. Rioters destroyed homes and businesses and lynched two men. The event led to the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
• Tule Lake National Monument - Tulelake, CA
  • The largest and most controversial of the sites where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.
• Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site - Tuskegee, AL
  • African-Americans shattered sound and social barriers when they took to the skies in WWII.

In New York City? In-Person Meetup

Two of our steering committee members, Lena Bohman and DataDarner will host an in-person meetup for those in the New York City area who are interested in saving signs on Saturday, August 30th, at Noon.

Everyone will meet in Manhattan before splitting up into teams to go to an NPS site to work on taking photos. If you would like to participate, please register here. The location of the meetup will be shared after registration.