202509 Wallpaper Collection

The Wilderness Act of 1964, passed 61 years ago today, established the legal definition of wilderness in the United States. Its purpose was to preserve areas 'where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man.' This landmark legislation created the National Wilderness Preservation System, protecting millions of acres from development, roads, and mechanized use.

At first glance, it looks like a surreal art installation: dark trees frozen on a clay pan, backed by sand dunes and a glowing sky. But this scene from Deadvlei, in Namibia's Namib-Naukluft Park, is entirely natural. The name 'Deadvlei' means 'dead marsh'—a remnant of the wetland that once filled this basin.

May 1915: Chicago buzzes with energy. Streetcars pass brick buildings, shop signs catch the morning light, and the city moves with purpose. But today, something different takes over the streets. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, just months old, march in rows as sharp as the suits they craft. This isn't a quiet debut—it's a statement.

Long before GPS, natural landmarks like Scotts Bluff rose high above the prairie, signaling to travelers that they were on the right path heading west. Before Gering became a town in 1887 and decades before Nebraska achieved statehood in 1867, these sandstone and siltstone formations were already guiding thousands along the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. Scotts Bluff National Monument is named after Hiram Scott, a fur trader with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company who died under mysterious circumstances nearby in the 1820s.